TUGAS 2

GEODINAMIKA DAN DEFORMASI

Types of Volcanoes

DOSEN PEMBIMBING :
1. Ira Mutiara Anjasmara, ST., M.Phil
2. Mukhamad Nur Cahyadi, ST, M.Sc, D. Sc
3. Meiriska Yusfania, ST, MT
OLEH :
1. Lilik Widiastuti
(3513100009)
2. Atik Indra Puspita (3513100080)

LABORATORIUM GEODINAMIKA DAN LINGKUNGAN

JURUSAN TEKNIK GEOMATIKA
FAKULTAS TEKNIK SIPIL DAN PERENCANAAN
INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI SEPULUH NOPEMBER
SURABAYA
2016

There are five basic kinds of mountains:

1. Fold Mountains (Folded Mountains)
2. Fault-block Mountains (Block Mountains)
3. Dome Mountains
4. Volcanic Mountains
5. Plateau Mountains
These different types of mountain names not only distinguish the physical
characteristics of the mountains, but also how they were formed.

Fold Mountains
Fold mountains are the most common type of mountain. The worlds largest
mountain ranges are fold mountains. These ranges were formed over millions of
years. Fold mountains are formed when two plates collide head on, and their
edges crumbled, much the same way as a piece of paper folds when pushed
together.

The upward folds are known as anticlines, and the downward folds are synclines.
Examples of fold mountains include:
Himalayan Mountains in Asia
the Alps in Europe
the Andes in South America
the Rockies in North America
the Urals in Russia
The Himalayan Mountains were formed when India crashed into Asia and pushed
up the tallest mountain range on the continents. In South America, the Andes
Mountains were formed by the collision of the South American continental plate
and the oceanic Pacific plate.

Fault-block Mountains
These mountains form when faults or cracks in the earth's crust force some
materials or blocks of rock up and others down.
Instead of the earth folding over, the earth's crust fractures (pulls apart). It breaks
up into blocks or chunks. Sometimes these blocks of rock move up and down, as
they move apart and blocks of rock end up being stacked on one another.

Often fault-block mountains have a steep front side and a sloping back side.
Examples of fault-block mountains include:
the Sierra Nevada mountains in North America
the Harz Mountains in Germany

Dome Mountains
Dome mountains are the result of a great amount of melted rock (magma)
pushing its way up under the earth crust. Without actually eruption onto the
surface, the magma pushes up overlaying rock layers. At some point, the magma
cools and forms hardened rock. The uplifted area created by rising magma is
called a dome because of looking like the top half of a sphere (ball). The rock
layers over the hardened magma are warped upward to form the dome. But the
rock layers of surrounding area remain flat.

As the dome is higher than its surroundings, erosion by wind and rain occurs
from the top. This results in a circular mountain range. Domes that have been
worn away in places form many separate peaks called Dome Mountains.

Volcanic Mountains
As the name suggest, volcanic mountains are formed by volcanoes.
Volcanic Mountains are formed when molten rock (magma) deep within the
earth, erupts, and piles upon the surface. Magna is called lava when it breaks
through the earth's crust. When the ash and lava cools, it builds a cone of rock.
Rock and lava pile up, layer on top of layer.

Examples of volcanic mountains include:

Mount St. Helens in North America
Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines
Mount Kea and Mount Loa in Hawaii

Plateau Mountains (Erosion Mountains)

Plateau mountains are not formed by internal activity. Instead, these mountains
are formed by erosion. Plateaus are large flat areas that have been pushed above
sea level by forces within the Earth, or have been formed by layers of lava. The
dictionary describes these as large areas of high levels of flat land, over 600
meters above sea level. Plateau mountains are often found near folded mountains.
As years pass, streams and rivers erode valleys through the plateau, leaving
mountains standing between the valleys.
The mountains in New Zealand are examples of plateau mountains

Types of Volcanoes Based on Morphology

1. Stratovolcanoes (Composite Volcanoes)
Many of Earth's most beautiful mountains are stratovolcanoesalso referred to
as composite volcanoes. The stratovolcanoes are made up of layers of lava flows
interlayed with sand- or gravel-like volcanic rock called cinders or volcanic ash.
These volcano land formations are typically 10-20 miles across and up to 10,000
or more feet tall. This type of volcano has steeper slopes of 6-10 degrees on its
flanks and as much as a 30 degree slope near the top. Stratovolcanoes show
interlayering of lava flows and typically up to 50 percent pyroclastic material,
which is why they are sometimes called composite volcanoes.
Pyroclastic flows are high-density mixtures of hot, dry rock fragments and hot
gases that move away from the vent that erupted them at high speeds. They may
result from the explosive eruption of molten or solid rock fragments, or both.
They may also result from the nonexplosive eruption of lava when parts of dome
or a thick lava flow collapses down a steep slope. Most pyroclastic flows consist
of two distinguishable flowing mixtures: a basal flow of coarse fragments that
moves along the ground and a turbulent cloud of ash that rises above the basal
flow. Ash may fall from this cloud over a wide area downwind from the
pyroclastic flow.
Referring to the images below, the diagram shows how a composite or
stratovolcano is built on the inside, and the photograph represents an example
of an actual stratovolcano.

Image above at left: A schematic representation of the internal structue of a

typical stratovolcano (composite volcano). Image source: USGS publications.
Image above at right: Mayon, a stratovolcano in the Philippines. Image
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano.
2. Shield Volcanoes

The second type may be familiar to you from news reports from Hawaii: the
shield volcano. This type of volcano can be hundreds of miles across and 10,000
feet high. A shield volcano is characterized by gentle upper slopes (about 5
degrees) with somewhat steeper lower slopes (about 10 degrees). The shield
volcanoes are almost entirely composed of relatively thin lava flows built up over
a central vent. These features are illustrated in the shield volcano diagram shown
below.
Shield volcanoes have small amounts of pyroclastic material, most of which
accumulates near the eruptive vents, resulting from fire fuming events. Thus,
shield volcanoes typically form from nonexplosive eruptions of low viscosity
basaltic magma.
The individual islands of the state of Hawaii are simply large shield volcanoes.
Mauna Loa, a shield volcano on the "big" island of Hawaii, is the largest single
mountain in the world, rising more than 30,000 feet above the ocean floor and
reaching almost 100 miles across at its base. Shield volcanoes have low slopes
and consist almost entirely of lavas. They almost always have large calderas at
their summits.

The graphic at left illustrates the internal structure of a typical shield volcano.
Image source: USGS publications.

Image at left: Skjaldbreiour, a shield volcano in Iceland. Skjaldbreiour means broad shield."

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano

3. Cinder Cone Volcanoes

An easily recognized type of volcano is the cinder cone. As you might expect
from the name, these volcanoes consist almost entirely of loose, grainy cinders
consisting typically of basaltic and andesitic material and almost no lava. They
are small volcanoes, usually only about a mile across and up to about 1,000 feet
high. They have very steep sides and usually have a small crater on top. Often
cinder cones are classed as a major type of volcano. But cinder cones are much
smaller than most shield, composite, and ash flow volcanoes. In fact, cinder cones
occur on all of these larger volcano types.

Image at left: A schematic representation of the internal structure of a typical cinder cone. Image
source: USGS publications.
Image

at

right

Cinder

cone

volcano

near

Veyo,

Utah.

Image

source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VeyoVolcano.jpg.

Types of Volcanoes Based on Eruptions

1. Fissure Eruptions
Fissure eruptions should not be considered in isolation, because they are also
intimately related to Hawaiian eruptions. However, the unique character of fissure
eruptions warrants a separate description here.
In contrast to the point-source, centralized eruptions that typify most volcanoes,
fissure eruptions are generated at several contemporaneous sites along a linear
fracture, or along an en echelon (parallel, but offset) fracture system, such as that
shown in the image here. Regional fracture systems can appear where the Earth's
crust is broken and pulled apart by tensional forces. If these regions are underlain by
reservoirs of basaltic magma, this low-viscosity melt will utilize the fractures and
ascend through the crust to generate a fissure eruption. For example, Mid-oceanic
ridges (divergent plate margins) typically extrude basaltic magma from fissure
eruptions because these are areas where global-scale extension is coincident with the
rise of partially molten asthenosphere. Because Iceland is the subaerial extension of
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it is one of the world's most active sites for basaltic fissure
eruptions. For this reason, fissure eruptions are also known as Icelandic eruptions.
The largest lava flow in recorded history was generated by a fissure eruption in
south central Iceland in 1783. Known as the Laki flow, it erupted from a 25kilometer-long fissure to produce 12 cubic kilometers of lava, filling two deep river
valleys and covering an area greater than 500 square kilometers.
Fissure eruptions are also common on the flanks of many large
volcanoes and, therefore, they are not restricted to areas
undergoing regional extension. Magma-filled fissures radiating
from the summit regions of active volcanoes like Mt.
Etna, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea propagate outward from the
central vent system. Extrusion from these propagating fissures

can produce elongate volcano morphologies, such as those that are typical of many
Hawaiian shield volcanoes. Note, for example, the axial elongation of the Mauna
Loa shield volcano shown in the image to the left. Mauna Loa fissure eruptions are
generated along two axial rift zones connected at the Mokuaweoweo summit crater.
Each rift zone is underlain by magma-filled fissures. The image here displays
several lava flows radiating downslope from these axial rift zones. Most of these
erupted in historic times.
ERUPTION STYLE: the "Curtain of Fire"
As fluid, gas-poor basaltic magma rises up through a fissure, it is
extruded at the surface as a wall of incandescent, liquid-to-plastic
fragments known as a curtain of fire. Two such eruptions are
shown below from extrusive events on the Kilauea volcano, Hawaii. Fissure
eruptions are quiescent, and the height of the airborne eruptive material is small,
often only a few tens of meters. The basaltic fragments in the curtain of fire thus
remain largely liquid when they hit the ground. These coherent lumps of hot, fluid
lava are called spatter. When they land, they can be hot and fluid enough to fuse
together to form an aggregate calledagglutinate, or agglutinated spatter. Spatter
commonly builds up as banks along the fissure sides to produce spatter ramparts.

Curtain of Fire

Curtain of Fire

Spatter Ramparts

Linear vents with aligned spatter cones and spatter

ramparts -- Fissure eruptions will generate a linear
system of spatter cones and ramparts. If the eruption
becomes concentrated on a single vent, then scoria
cones may

develop

from

more

explosive

Strombolian activity. All of these features are exhibited

here from a Neolithic eruption in western Saudi Arabia.
When fissures cease to erupt, the remaining magma residing in the fissure will cool
and crystallize into an igneous rock intrusion. The resulting rock structure is called
a dike. Dikes are tabular in shape, and they cut discordantly across adjacent rock
layers. In areas of ancient volcanism, dikes are often delineated as resistant walls
standing above more easily eroded rock types.

Columbia River Basalt Dike

Dike from Shiprock, New Mexico

Dikes are often recognized by glassy selvages that develop along their margins
where they cool rapidly against the rocks that they intrude, and by contractural
cooling joints that generate columnar jointing parallel to their cooling surface, as
demonstrated by the two dikes shown here from the Deccan flood basalt province.

A 25-km-long dike located northwest of the town of Dhule, India. The dike is one of a swarm of E-W
to ENE-WSW dikes in the central Deccan flood basalt province. Photo curtesy of Hetu Sheth.

A 20-km-long dike in the western coastal region of the Deccan flood basalt province, where most
dike swarms have N-S to NNW-SSE trends. The dike forms a dam across the Surya River near the
coastal town of Dahanu. Photo curtesy of Hetu Sheth.

FISSURE-FED FLOOD BASALT PROVINCES

Massive fissure eruptions in the geological past have generated extraordinarily
voluminous

lava

flows

that

form

large continental

flood

basalt

provinces. Individual provinces can cover hundreds of square kilometers, with

average thicknesses of one kilometer. These flood-basalt eruptions are rare in the
geologic record. They generate huge volumes of basalt over a very short time
intervals, typically in only 1-2 million years. Well-known examples include (1)
the Columbia River flood basalts, the bulk of which erupted from 17-14 million
years ago in the northwestern United States, (2) the Deccan flood basalts, which
erupted about 65 million years ago in western India, and (3) theSiberian flood
basalts, which erupted about 245 million years ago in northern Siberia.

Columbia River Flood Basalts

Deccan
(Courtesy of Hetu Sheth)

Flood

Basalts

Flood-basalt eruptions are often intimately related to rifting or to stretching of the

earth's crust above a region of hot mantle. This process can generate huge volumes
of magma that rises through fractures to produce massive fissure eruptions on the
surface. Basalt filled fissures on the Columbia Plateau, are currently exposed
as dikes. About 14 million years ago, 700 cubic kilometers of basalt erupted from a
single such fissure on the Columbia Plateau to form the Roza flow. The Roza flow is
typical in volume to many of the larger flows in the Columbia River Basalt
Province. These flow volumes dwarf the 12 cubic kilometers of the largest historic
basaltic flow (the 1783 Laki flow), by more than an order of magnitude. Whereas
the Laki flow advance ~40 kilometers from its source fissure, the largest of the
Columbia River Basalt flows travelled up to 500 kilometers west of their source
fissures.
2. Hawaiian Eruptions
PELE: the Hawaiian Goddess of Fire
Many native Hawaiians have a strong religous belief concerning Pele, the Hawaiian
goddess of fire. According to legend, her spirit resides in the Halemaumau crater on
the Kilauea volcano. At one time, she had a short and violent marriage
to Kamapuaa, the god of water. As demonstrated in the painting shown here
(courtsey of the artist, Herb Kane), Pele routed Kamapuaa from their Halemaumau
home and, in a rage, chased him with streams of lava into the sea. This symbolism
accurately portrays the often violent interaction of lava and water associated with
explosive hydrovolcanic eruptions. Typically, however, Hawaiian eruptions are
much more quiescent. The frequent outpouring of basaltic lava on Kilauea is a
fitting reminder to the faithful that Pele is
alive and well.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Hawaiian eruptions are the calmest of the eruption types. They are characterized by
the effusive emission of highly fluid basalt lavas with low gas contents. The relative
volume of ejected pyroclastic material is less than that of all other eruption types.
The hallmark of Hawaiian eruptions is steady lava fountaining and the production of
thin lava flows that eventually build up into large, broad shield volcanoes. Eruptions
are also common in central vents near the summit of shield volcanoes, and along
fissures radiating outward from the summit area. Lava advances downslope away
from their source vents in lava channels and lava tubes.
Fissure eruptions are common occurrences on the "Big Island" of Hawaii. They
often begin as a line of vents (curatin of fire) that gives way to eruptions
concentrated at one or two cental vents lying along the fissure. The Pu'u O'o
eruptive series, for example, has been erupting basaltic lava on the Kilauea shield
volcano since 1983. These eruptions began on January 3 with a six-kilometerlong curtain of fire on the east rift system of Kilauea. Intermittent fissure eruptions
soon gave way to a centralized eruption site on the east rift, about 15 km east of the
Kilauea summit caldera, which generated a scoria-and-spatter cone, called the Pu'u
O'o volcano. In 1986 the Kupaianaha volcano developed about 3 kilometers farther
down rift. It erupted smoothed-surface pahoehoe lava until early 1992. Since that
time the main eruption site has been centered at Pu'u O'o.

Kilauea

Kilauea in 3D

The Kilauea summit caldera and east rift system are evident on the above map-view
and 3D images. The blue-to-purple regions descending down the southeastern slope
of Kilauea (far right) are lava flows generated during the Pu'u O'o eruptive series,
through early 1994.
FIRE FOUNTAINS

Central-vent Hawaiian eruptions are noted for their spectacular jet-like sprays of
liquid lava called fire fountains. These incandescent jets ascend hundreds of meters
into the air. They can occur in short spurts, or last for hours on end. One of the most
spectacular fire fountaining events ever recorded on Kilauea produced a lava spray
580 m high at the Kilauea Iki vent in 1959. However, this is dwarfed by the 1600 m
fire fountain generated by an Hawaiian eruption on the Japanese Island of Oshima in
1986. The top of fire fountains are often carried away downwind to produce an
airborne curtain of glowing fragments that showers downward. The indivudual
liquid-to-plastic fragments (clasts) generally cool quickly by radiating their heat into
the atmosphere. Thus, they are chilled and solid by the time they hit the ground,
where they accumulate as cindery fragments called scoria. However, during very
high eruption rates, the fire fountains become so dense that the clasts can no longer
radiate heat freely into the atmosphere. These clasts are kept hot by the heat of
surrounding clasts. Under these conditions the molten clasts, spatter, may hit the
ground and fuse together to form agglutinated spatter cones and spatter ramparts. If
the eruption rates are high enough, spatter-fed flows (clastogenic lavas) may
develop as hot spatter fragments blend together on the ground
and flow away.
The smallest pyroclasts during fire-fountaining will be carried
downwind from near the the top of the eruptive jet. They will
chill quickly into small glassy black spheres, dumbells, or
teardrop shapes calledPele's tears. During high winds, the
teardrop shapes are sometimes drawn out as long filaments, the
tails of which can break off to produce Pele's hair. During
periods of high vesiculation, basalt foam can quench into the glassy rock recitulite,
also known as thread-lace scoria, which has the lowest density of any know rock
type.
LAVA LAKES
The fluid basalt associated with Hawaiian eruptions sometimes ponds in vents,
craters, or broad depressions to produce lava lakes. In some cases, lava may erupt
from a vent located within a crater, or surface lava flow may pour into a crater or

broad depression. The image shown here is a lava lake that occupied the Kupaianaha
vent on the east rift system of Kilauea in 1986. Currently active lava lakes occur in
only a few locations: Mt. Erebus in Antarctica, Erta' Ale in Ethiopia,
and Nyiragongo in the Congo. The Kilauea volcano has had an active history of
producing lava lakes in its numerous craters. Perhaps longest-lived lava lake in
historic times was the near permanent lake that occupied the Halemaumau crater for
most of the hundred-year period between 1823 to 1924. This lake was destroyed in
1924 by a massive hydrovolcanic eruption. As lava lakes cool, they produce a greysilver crust that is usually only a few centimeters thick, as shown here in the image
of the Kupaianaha lava lake. Active lava lakes contain young crust that is
continually destroyed and regenereated. Convective motion of the underlying lava
causes the crust to break into slabs and sink. This then exposes new lava at the
surface that cools into a new crustal layer which will again
break up into slabs and be recycled into the circulating lava
beneath the crust.
3.

Strombolian Eruptions
Strombolian eruptions are named from the small volcanoisland of Stromboli (image), located between Sicily and Italy.

This volcano has been erupting almost constantly for hundreds of years. It erupts
irregularly every twenty minutes or so to produce an episodic lightshow that gives rise to
its nickname, the "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean".
The term "strombolian" has been used indiscriminately to
describe a variety of volcanic eruptions that vary from small volcanic blasts, to
kilometer-high eruptive columns. However, true strombolian activity is characterized by
short-lived, explosive outbursts of pasty lava ejected a few tens or hundreds of meters
into the air. Unlike Hawaiian eruptions, Strombolian eruptions never develop a sustained
eruption column. They eject relatively viscous basaltic lava from the throat of the
volcano. Build up of the high gas pressures required to fragment this somewhat pasty
lava, results in episodic explosions with booming blasts. Although Strombolian eruptions
are much noisier than Hawaiian eruptions, they are no more dangerous. As shown in the
images above and below, Strombolian explosions eject bomb- and lapilli-sizedfragments

that travel in parabolic ballistic paths before accumulating around the vent to construct
the volcanic edifice. Typically, these eruptions form scoria conescomposed of basaltic
pryoclasts. However, mafic stratovolcanoes can also exhibit common Strombolian
activity, evident for example, at Mt. Eberus in Antarctica and
at Stromboli itself.

Strombolian activity from Mt. Etna in October 2002.

Pyroclastic particles like Pele's tears, Pele's hair, and reticulite, which are common
in Hawaiian eruptions, are not present in Strombolian eruptions. Spatter-fed flows
are minor. Instead, Strombolian eruptions are dominated byscoria fragments, which
are highly vesiculated clasts of basalt with a cindery appearance. Tephra bombs and
lapilli accumulate around the vent to produce well-bedded, and often wellsorted, scoria-fall deposits
In contrast to Hawaiian eruptions, true Strombolian eruptions produce little or no
flowing lava. However, during the end stages of scoria-cone formation, it is not
unusual for Strombolian activity to wane and give way to the calm extrusion of
basaltic lava flows. As a general rule, a'a lava flows appear to be more common
than the more fluid pahoehoe types. As the vesiculating lava is de-gased toward the
end of the eruption, it may ooze out from under the volcanic edifice to produce a
lava flow, or pond in the vent to produce a lava lake. This will only occur if the
underlying basalt is fluid enough to flow, which has not proved to be the case at
Stromboli itself.
THE STROMBOLIAN ERUPTION OF PARICUTIN
A classic example of a Strombolian-type eruption was the Paricutin eruption in
1943, about 200 miles west of Mexico City. This eruption marks the first time
scientists were able to observe the complete life cycle of a volcano, from birth to

extinction.
Three weeks before the Paricutin eruption occurred, the people near Paricutin
village heard the rumbling noises that resembled thunder, yet they were confused
because the skies were clear of clouds. The noises were associated with earthquakes
at depth near Paricutin. On February 20, 1943 a farmer, Dionisio Pulido, and his
wife were burning shrubbery in their cornfield when they observed the earth in front
of them swell upward and crack to form a fissure 2-2.5 m across. They heard hissing
sounds and later described the rise of "smoke" from the fissure, which had the
repugnant smell of rotten eggs. The "rotten egg" smell is a hallmark of H2S gas, and
the crack that opened in front of them was a fumarole.

Paricutin 1946

Paricutin 1944

Strombolian pyroclastic activity began at the site the following day and by the end
of the day it generated a 40-m-high scoria cone. In one week it grew to a height of
100 m from the accumulation of bombs and lapilli, and it was raining down finer
fragments that burned and eventually covered the village of Paricutin. The eruption
was unusually long for a strombolian eruption, with several eruptive phases
occurring over a 9-year period. After about two years of mostly pyroclastic activity
the pyroclastic phase began to wane, and the outpouring of lava from the base of the
cone became the dominant mode of eruption over the next 7 years. The eruption
ceased in 1952. The final height of the scoria cone was 424 m.
4. Vulcanian Eruptions
The small Italian island of Vulcano, provides the family name for all volcanoes.
Historic eruptions led the Romans to believe that this island was the forge of Vulcan,
son of Jupiter and blacksmith to the Roman gods, as depicted in the image left, with
permission from the artist, Jeffrey Hulen. The island of Vulcano also gives its name
to a particular eruption style -- vulcanian. Vulcanian eruptions initially occur as a

Tavurvur

Volcano,

Papua New Guinea

In contrast to basaltic strombolian eruptions, vulcanian eruptions are most often

associated with andesitic to dacitic magma. The high viscosity of these magmas
makes it difficult for the vesiculating gases to escape. This leads to the build up of
high gas pressure and explosive eruptions. The ejected lava fragments do not take on
the aerodynamic shapes common to Strombolian eruptions. This is partly due to the
higher viscosity of the erupting magma, but also because the ejecta often
incorporates a high proportion of crystalline material broken away from the rock
plugging the throat of the volcano. These eruptions are often associated with
growing lava domes, such as that at Mt. Pele in 1902, and
with the genration of pyroclastic flows from dome
collapse.
Vulcanian deposits contain large blocks and bombs near the vent. Bread-crust
bombs (left) are particularly abundant. These resemble a crusty loaf of bread broken
by deep cracks that often expose a frothy interior. These large pyroclastic fragments
form when viscous, gas-rich magma is ejected from the vent to produce a bomb
whose exterior chills quickly to a glassy or fine-grained crust while in flight. The
interior of the bomb, however, continues to vesiculate on the ground, which leads to
expansion of the interior and cracking of the brittle outer crust.
Although blocks and bombs are common in proximal deposits, the bulk of Vulcanian
deposits is very fine grained and dominated by ash. The abundance of ash indicates
a high degree of fragmentation, which can only be generated by magmas with high
gas contents. In some cases, these high gas contents are derived from heated
meteoric water. It is likely, therefore, that many vulcanian eruptions are at least
partially hydrovolcanic. Although the ash-fall deposits generated by volcanian
eruptions are highly fragmented, they are only moderately dispersed. This suggests a

high degree of explosiveness (high fragmentation) associated with the development

of eruptive columns that are of only moderate heights (moderate dispersal).
5. Plinian Eruptions
PLINY THE YOUNGER
Plinian (or Vesuvian) eruptions typify the well-known historic eruptions that produce
powerful convecting plumes of ash ascending up to 45 kilometers into the
stratosphere. These explosive eruption types are named after Pliny the Younger, a
Roman statesman who wrote a remarkably objective account of the eruption of
Italy's Mt. Vesuvius (left) in 79 AD. Pliny's uncle, Caius Plinius (Pliny the Elder),
was a much respected naturalist and Admiral in the Roman navy who died during
the eruption. To properly record the circumstances of his esteemed uncle's death,
Pliny the Younger wrote two letters to the historianTactius describing the Mt.
Vesuvius eruption. The eruption killed thousands of people and buried the Roman
towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum under huge volumes of tephra, pyroclastic
flows, and lahars. Pompeii laid buried for over 1700 years until it was rediscovered
by accident during the excavation of a water line. Uncovering the remains of
Pompeii has not only broadened our understanding of Plinian-type eruptions, but it
has also provided a unique understanding of the lives of ordinary people during
Roman times.

Mt. Vesuvius has experienced numerous Plinian eruptions since the famous eruption in 79 AD. Many
of these are depicted in paintings, lithographs, and engravings. The lithograph shown here is titled
"The Eruption of Vesuvius as seen from Naples, October 1822" from V. Day & Son, in G. Poullet
Scrope, Masson, 1864. It exemplifies a typical Plinian column with an umbrella-shaped head.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

These spectacularly explosive eruptions are associated with volatile-rich dacitic to

rhyolitic lava, which typically erupts from stratovolcanoes. The duration these
eruptions is highly variable, from hours to days. The longest eruptions appear to be
associated with the most felsic volcanoes. Although Plinian eruptions typically
invlove felsic magma, they can occasionally occur in fundamentally basaltic
volcanoes where the magma chambers become differentiated and zoned to create a
siliceous top. An example of this was the Hekla eruption (Iceland) of 1947-48. Over
the past 800 years, Hekla has had a history of generating violent initial eruptions of
pumice, lasting a few hours, followed by prolonged extrusion of basaltic lava from
the lower part of the chamber.
Rather

than

producing

the

discrete

of Vulcanian and Strombolian eruptions,

explosions

Plinian

eruptions

that

are

generate

typical
sustained

eruptive columns. Although they differ markedly from nonexplosive Hawaiian

eruptions, Plinian eruptions are similar to Hawaiian fire fountaining in that both of
these eruption types generate sustained eruption plumes. In both, the eruption
plumes are maintained because the growing bubbles rise at about the same rate as
the magma moves up through the central vent system.
Plinian eruptions generate large eruptive columns that are powered upward partly by
the thrust of expanding gases, and by convective forces with exit velocities of
several hundred meters per second. Some reach heights of ~45 km. These eruptive
columns produce widespread dispersals of tephra which cover large areas with an
even thickness of pumice and ash (see pumice-fall deposits). The region of
pyroclastic fall accumulation is generally asymmetric around the volcano as the
eruptive column is carried in the direction of the prevailing wind, as shown here in
this NASA image of the Klyuchevskaya eruption in 1994.

The regions surrounding Plinian eruptions are not only subject to large volumes
of pumice airfall (from 0.5 to 50 km3), but they are also subject to the most
dangerous types of volcanic phenomena: pyroclastic flows and lahars. The
occasional collapse of the eruptive column will generate hot, pyroclastic flows that

advance down the volcano flanks at hurricane-force

speeds. In addition, large volumes of water are often
generated by the melting of snow banks and alpine
glaciers during the eruption. The mixing of this
water with unconsolidated tephra can generate
volcanic mudflows (lahars). These features have the
consistency of wet concrete, yet they can advance down slopes at the same rate as a
rapidly moving stream.
The human devastation associated with the Plinian eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79
AD is largely attributed to all of these volcanic phenomena. Pompeii was located to
the southeast, on the downwind side of the volcano. Not only was it subjected to the
destructive force of several pyroclastic flows, but it was also buried under a huge
thickness of airfall tephra. Although the village of Herculaneum was also destroyed
by the eruption, it was located west of the volcano, and was not subjected to the
same volume of airfall tephra that buried Pompeii. Instead, Herculeaneum was
largely buried by pyroclastic flows and massive lahars which advanced down the
volcano's western flank.
6.

Hydrovolcanic Eruptions
Hydrovolcanic eruptions are

generated

by

the

intereaction of magma with either groundwater or

surface water. Explosive hydrovolcanic eruptions of basaltic lava are sometimes
called Surtseyan, after the eruption off Iceland in 1963. Surtseyan eruptions are
considered to be the "wet" equivalents of Strombolian-type eruptions, although they
are much more explosive. This high explosivity is a hallmark of hydrovolcanic
activity. As the water is heated, it flashes to steam and expands explosively, thus
fragmenting the magma into exceptionally fine-grained ash. When the volcanic
island of Surtsey was born in the Atlantic, the initial hydrovolcanic eruptions were
spectacularly explosive. As the volcano grew, however, the rising lava in the central
vent interacted with water to a lesser degree, so that the waning stages of the
eruption became more Strombolian in character.

Hydrovolcanic eruptions are not restricted to the underwater development of oceanic

islands. Many explosive Surtseyan events are generated on land by rising conduits
(diapirs) of basaltic magma that interact with water-bearing strata (e.g., aquifers) at
shallow levels beneath the surface. The two examples are shown here are
from Ukinrek in Alaska and Capelinhos in the Azores.

Hydrovolcanic

eruption

Ukinrek, Alaska (1977)

at

Base

surge

at

Capelinhos,

Azores (1957)

Note the radial cloud emanating from the base of the Capelinhos eruptive column.
This phenomenon is a base surge, a characteristic feature of many Surtseyan-type
eruptions. These surges are analogous to the ring-shaped, ground-hugging clouds
that travel radially away from the vertical columns generated by nuclear explosions.
Base surges are derived from the gravitational collapse of the "wet" eruptive
column, which is denser than those associated with "dry" eruptions. Base surge
deposits are wedge-shaped, with their thickest end near the vent. Dune-shaped
deposits are common near the vent, indicated lateral transport analogous to the
lateral movement and deposition of sand grains along the face of a moving sand
dune. The bedding is often disrupted by "bomb sags" containing large ejected blocks
which followed ballistic trajectories unrelated to the lateral surge. Spherical
accumulations of wet, accreted ash, called accretionary lapilli, are also common to
many base surge deposits.
HYDROVOLCANIC VENTS: Maars and Tuff Rings
Hydrovolcanic explosions generate maars and tuff rings. These vent types are large

circular depressions with low rims of ejected debris. Maars are excavated into the
substrate, thus exposing older rocks along their inner walls. Tuff rings, however, are
built above the substrate. Maars contain a greater proportion of fragmented
basement rocks in the ejecta blanket. This suggests that maars are derived from
steam blasts (phreatic eruptions) generated well above the diapiric intrusion. Tuff
rings, on the other hand, contain a greater proportion of magmatic (juvenile)
fragments (see for example, palagonite tuff). Such deposits are consistent with
explosions derived from a combination of heated groundwater and vesiculating
magma (phreatomagmatic eruptions) from relatively shallower intrusions.

Maar, Saudi Arabia

Tuff ring, Saudi Arabia

Ciruclar-shaped maars and tuff rings appear to be generated above rising columns of
magma (diapirs). However, if the magma rises along a linear fracture zone, the
interaction with groundwater may result in the reaming out of the fissure. Such
eruptions can be even more destructive than those associated with maars and tuff
rings, as exemplified by the highly explosive Tarawera eruption which buried three
villages and killed 150 people on New Zealand's North Island in 1886.

Rift zone generated by

the 1886 hydrovolcanic
eruption at Tarawera,
New Zealand

LITTORAL CONES
Although littoral cones have a hydrovolcanic origin, they are not true hydrovolcanic
vents. They are composed of basalt tephra that accumulate as ejected debris from
the explosive interaction of moving lava and seawater. Although pahoehoe
flows generally enter the water in a relatively passive manner, a'a flows often enter
the sea explosively to produce cone-shaped piles of ejected debris. The irregular

cracks bounding cindery blocks of a'a allow water to penetrate into the interior of
the hot flow where it then flashes to steam explosively. Basalt exiting from lava
tubes can also generate littoral cones from episodic explosions due to disruption of
the lava stream by incoming waves or swells. The littoral cones that develop from
these explosive ejections are typically open on the seaward side.

The generation of littoral cones from the explosive interaction of

basaltic lava and seawater at Kilauea, Hawaii

The Sizes of Volcanoes Eruptions

Volcano

Year

Cubic Cubic

Miles
"Large" Eruptions
Kilauea, Hawaii
1983
0.02
Mauna Loa, Hawaii
1976
0.09
Mauna Loa, Hawaii
1984
0.05
Mt. Pelee, Martinique 1902
0.1
Mount St. Helens
1980
0.2
Askja, Iceland
1875
0.5
Vesuvius, Italy
79
0.7
"Major" Eruptions
Pinatubo, Philippines 1991
2.4
Krakatoa, Indonesia 1883
4.3
Ilopango, El Salvador 300
10
Santorini, Greece
1450BC
14
Mazama, Oregon
4000BC
18
Tambora, Indonesia
1815
36
"Great" Eruptions
Valles, New Mexico 1.4 Million BC 72
Long Valley, Calif.
740,000BC
120
Yellowstone, Wyoming:
Lava Creek Ash
600,000BC
240
Mesa Falls
1.2 Million BC 67

Kilometers
0.1
0.375
0.22
0.5
0.7
2
3
10
18
40
60
75
150
300
500
1000
280

Huckleberry
2.0 Million BC 600
2500
Columbia, Washington 15 Million BC 24,000 100,000
* Volumes are approximate. 1 mi3 = 4.168 km3

DAFTAR PUSTAKA
http://ete.cet.edu/gcc/?/volcanoes_types/
diakses pada tanggal 14 Maret 2016 pukul 21:41 WIB
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Eruption_types.html
diakses pada tanggal 14 Maret 2016 pukul 21:42 WIB