Why do volcanoes erupt?

The melted rock, or magma, is lighter than the surrounding rock and rises up. This magma collects in magma chambers, but it is still miles below the surface. When enough magma builds up in the magma chamber, it forces its way up to the surface and erupts, often causing volcanic eruptions.
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What causes volcanoes to erupt?

Deep within the Earth it is so hot that some rocks slowly melt and become a thick flowing substance called magma. Since it is lighter than the solid rock around it, magma rises and collects in magma chambers. Eventually, some of the magma pushes through vents and fissures to the Earth's surface.
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Why does a volcano erupt essay?

The buoyancy and the pressure of the gas within the earth's crust cause the volcano to erupt. Magma is formed when the upper mantle of the earth melts. A volcano is erupted when the magma (the hot liquid) rises upwards by the pressure of gas that is dissolved in it.
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What makes a volcano active?

An active volcano is a volcano that has erupted during the Holocene (the current geologic epoch of last 10,000 years), is currently erupting, or has the potential to erupt in the future. A volcano that is not currently erupting but could erupt in the future is known as a dormant volcano.
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Why does a volcano erupt for kids?

Volcanic eruptions happen when gas bubbles inside magma, or hot liquid rock, expand and cause pressure to build up. This pressure pushes on weak spots in the earth's surface, or crust, causing magma to exit the volcano.
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Volcanic eruption explained - Steven Anderson

What are the 3 main causes of volcanic eruptions?

The three main causes of volcanic eruptions are:
  • The buoyancy of the magma.
  • Pressure from the exsolved gases in the magma.
  • Increase in pressure on the chamber lid.
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Has an extinct volcano ever erupted?

Except that it's not unheard of for volcanoes that are considered “extinct” to occasionally erupt! For some volcanoes, it is easy to say with confidence that they are extinct. Take Mount Thielsen, in Oregon.
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Can a volcanic eruption be stopped?

"Humans cannot stop or control an eruption," Babb writes in an email, "but [humans] have taken some actions to control products erupted from a volcano." Diverting lava flows, for instance. Babb points to Mount Etna and that 1983 eruption we mentioned earlier, which sent lava flowing into populated areas.
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How long do volcanoes stay active?

According to the catalog "Volcanoes of the World" by Smithsonian Institution volcanologists Tom Simkin and Lee Siebert, 9 percent of eruptions end in less than one day, 16 percent within two days, 24 percent within one week, 30 percent within two weeks, 43 percent within a month, 53 percent within two months, 83 ...
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How hot is lava?

The temperatures of molten lava range from about 700 to 1,200 °C (1,300 to 2,200 °F). The material can be very fluid, flowing almost like syrup, or it can be extremely stiff, scarcely flowing at all. The higher the lava's silica content, the higher its viscosity.
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What is volcano in 300 words?

A volcano is an opening in the earth's crust through which lava, volcanic ash, and gases escape. Volcanic eruptions are partly driven by pressure from dissolved gas, much as escaping gases force the cork out of a bottle of champagne.
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What is volcano in 100 words?

volcano is an opening, in the planet's surface which allows hot, molten rock, ash and gases to escape from below the surface. The name, “volcano” originates from the name Vulcan, a god of fire in Roman mythology. Volcanoes are like giant safety valves that release the pressure that builds up inside the Earth.
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Can lightning come out of a volcano?

Volcanic lightning arises from colliding, fragmenting particles of volcanic ash (and sometimes ice), which generate static electricity within the volcanic plume, leading to the name dirty thunderstorm. Moist convection currents and ice formation also drive the eruption plume dynamics and can trigger volcanic lightning.
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How deep are volcanoes?

If the magma finds a path to the surface, then the result will be a volcanic eruption; consequently, many volcanoes are situated over magma chambers. These chambers are hard to detect deep within the Earth, and therefore most of those known are close to the surface, commonly between 1 km and 10 km down.
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Where do volcanoes exist?

Sixty percent of all active volcanoes occur at the boundaries between tectonic plates. Most volcanoes are found along a belt, called the “Ring of Fire” that encircles the Pacific Ocean. Some volcanoes, like those that form the Hawaiian Islands, occur in the interior of plates at areas called “hot spots.”
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What volcano would destroy the world if it erupted?

The Yellowstone supervolcano is supposed to erupt around 2030, and will kill countless people, including wiping out the US.
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What happens if Yellowstone erupts?

If another large, caldera-forming eruption were to occur at Yellowstone, its effects would be worldwide. Such a giant eruption would have regional effects such as falling ash and short-term (years to decades) changes to global climate.
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Can humans cause a volcano to erupt?

Answer and Explanation: In general, human activity does not affect volcanoes, as volcanoes rely on pressure from magma currents to erupt and few human activities truly affect the magma beneath the crust.
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Could any volcano end the world?

These sort of explosive eruptions are the kind that we are most familiar with, but in fact, they can't happen on a large enough scale to cause a mass extinction. The sort of volcanic activity that scientists suspect leads to mass extinctions is not your iconic mountain erupting in a spew of lava.
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What volcano almost ended humans?

The Toba catastrophe theory and the human bottleneck hypothesis posit that around 74,000 years ago, the human species almost went extinct. It resulted from a global catastrophe caused by the eruption of Mount Toba, the remains of which lie on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
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Is Yellowstone a extinct volcano?

Yellowstone doesn't just have a volcano, Yellowstone is a volcano. And it's active. A plume of molten rock that rises beneath the park creates one of the world's largest active volcanoes, and we can see evidence all around us in the form of geysers and hot springs.
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How deep is lava underground?

Lava is molten rock. It is created deep beneath Earth's surface (often 100 miles or more underground), where temperatures get hot enough to melt rock. Scientists call this molten rock magma when it's underground. Eventually, some magma makes its way to Earth's surface and escapes via a volcanic eruption.
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What is a sleeping volcano?

Dormant → Dormant volcanoes are volcanoes that have not erupted in a long time but are expected to erupt again in the future. Examples of dormant volcanoes are Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Africa and Mount Fuji in Japan. IMAGE.
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What is the oldest volcano in the world?

Mt. Unzen on the island of Kyushu, Japan (see figure) is thought to be the oldest active volcano. It is estimated to be 2.5 million years old, yet it has erupted as recently as 1984. It was also the ancient source for sulfur used to make gun powder in Japan as far back as the early 1600s.
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