Volcanoes and

Volcanic Rocks
How Volcanoes Work

Volcanic Deposits

Landforms & Eruptions

Hazards & Prediction

How volcanoes work

Subducting plate

Convergence zones: important site of volcanism

1. Magma, which
originates in the
partially melted
asthenosphere

2. rises through the

lithosphere to form a
magma chamber.
1. Magma, which
originates in the
partially melted
asthenosphere

3. Lavas erupt from

the magma chamber
through central and
side vents, fissures
2. rises through the
lithosphere to form a
magma chamber.
1. Magma, which
originates in the
partially melted
asthenosphere

4. accumulating on
the surface to form a
volcano.
3. Lavas erupt from
the magma chamber
through central and
side vents, fissures
2. rises through the
lithosphere to form a
magma chamber
1. Magma, which
originates in the
partially melted
asthenosphere

Volcanic Rocks
Cool, viscous
melts

hot, fluid melts

Volcanic deposits
Lava flows molten rock
that effuses out of volcano
and moves over the ground
Pyroclastic debris
fragments exploded out of
the volcano
Character of volcanic
deposits depends on:
Magma composition
- Mafic: lava flows
- Intermediate-felsic: pyroclastic

Eruption style
- related to composition and volatiles

What dictates whether a volcano is

effusive or explosive?
VISCOSITY
VOLATILES

Viscosity:
Do rocks sink faster in air, water, or honey?
A substances ability to resist flow. Highly
viscous substances flow slowly (honey) while
less viscous substances flow readily (water).

Volatiles
- facilitate melting
- most common volatile in magma is H2O.
- Volatiles affect magma behavior by
breaking links between silica tetrahedra
(viscosity) and by forming bubbles.

Role of
Bubbles in
Eruptions
Lower pressure

D) Bubbles begin to
become interconnected, forcing
magma apart
C) Magma froths
B) Bubbles expand at
lower pressures
A) Volatiles separate out
as bubbles
Higher pressure

Ideal Gas Law:

PV = nRT
P = pressure
n = amount of gas (mol)
V = volume
R = univeral gas const.
T = temperature

Volcanic Gas Bubbles

Gas bubbles are expelled as magma rises (P drops).
Viscosity controls gas pressure and how bubbles escape
magma, which governs eruption violence (explosivity)
Low viscosity (basalt) Easy bubble escape; mellow effusive
eruption with lava flows
High viscosity (rhyolite) Difficult bubble escape; violent
explosive eruption with pyroclastic deposits

Gas bubbles preserved in

a rock are called vesicles.

Effusive (gentle)
eruptions--magma
properties

High temperature
Low viscosity
Low silica content
Low volatile content

Explosive eruptions-magma properties

Low temperature
High viscosity
High silica content
High volatile content
Abundant pyroclastics

Lava Flows
Lava can be thin and runny or thick and sticky.
Flow style depends on viscosity, which depends upon...
Composition, especially silica (SiO2), Fe, and Mg content
More silica, more viscous

Temperature
Gas content
Crystal content

Basaltic Lava Flows

Mafic lava Low viscosity (very hot, low silica)
Basalt flows are often thin and fluid
They can flow rapidly (up to 100 km/hr).
They can flow for long distances (up to several 100 km).

Basaltic Lava Flows

Pahoehoe (pa-hoy-hoy) - a Hawaiian word describing
basalt with a glassy, ropy texture.
Pahoehoe forms when extremely hot basalt forms a skin.
With flow, the skin is rolled into ropy ridges and furrows.

Basaltic Lava Flows

Aa (ah-ah) is a Hawaiian word describing basalt that
solidifies with a jagged, sharp, angular texture.
Aa forms when hot flowing basalt cools and thickens
With flow, lava crumbles into shards and fragments

aa

pahoehoe

Basaltic Lava Flows

A cooled crust forms on top of a basalt flow

A conduit a lava tube develops in the flow
Tubes prevent cooling, facilitating flow for miles
Lava tubes become caves that can later transmit water

Basaltic Lava Flows

Lava flows tend to have rubbly top and coherent interior
Coherent interior contracts with vertical fractures that are
hexagonal in cross section when cooled
columnar jointing

Basaltic Lava Flows

Underwater, basalt cools instantly; it cannot flow
It cools to form a rounded blob called a pillow
The pillow surface is cracked, quenched glass
Lava pressure ruptures a pillow to form the next blob
The process repeats to form a mound of pillow basalts

Common on the mid-ocean ridge

Basaltic lava flows

Kilauea Lava Flow Oct 8, 2008 (3:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWcO3LDlIGE

Pahoehoe lava flow (1:34)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89echXV_XLs

Aa lava flow (2:09)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8W6vAlcFxE

Pahoehoe lava toe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8NXO6YxBmU

Bardarbunga, Iceland 9-4-2014

http://vimeo.com/105365343

Other great videos at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CenterStudyVolcanoes

Andesitic Lava Flows

Higher SiO2 makes andesitic lavas viscous
Unlike basalt, they do not flow rapidly
Instead, they mound around the vent and flow slowly.
The outer crust fractures, creating rubble
Andesitic lava flows remain close (<10 km) to the vent

Andesite lava flow

Bagana, Papua New Guinea

Rhyolitic Lava Flows

Rhyolite, with the highest SiO2, is the most viscous lava
Rhyolitic lava rarely flows away from vent (< 2km)
Lava plugs the vent, forms a lava dome

Rhyolite lava flow

Newberry Volcano, Oregon

Effusive (gentle)
eruptions--magma
properties

High temperature
Low viscosity
Low silica content
Low volatile content

Explosive eruptions-magma properties

Low temperature
High viscosity
High silica content
High volatile content
Abundant pyroclastics

Pyroclastic Deposits
Accumulations of fragmented igneous material exploded
out of volcano
Pyroclastic debris lava that freezes flying through air

Tephra Deposits of pyroclastic debris of any size

Ash: <2 mm
Lapilli: 2 64 mm
Blocks & bombs: >64 mm

Ash

lapilli

Blocks

Types of pyroclastic deposits

Lapilli

Falling ash
Blocks-Bombs
Pyroclastic Flow

Air-fall:
Fragments shot directly out of volcano, larger pieces deposited closer to vent
Pyroclastic flow:
Dome collapse or collapsing eruption column travels along volcano surface

Basaltic Pyroclastic Debris

Glass shards and fragmented lava in a range of sizes
Basaltic eruptions typically non-explosive, generate fall-out
spatter
Lapilli pea to plum-sized material
Blocks and bombs apple to refrigerator-sized
Peles Hair Strands of glass created by flying lava droplets
Bombs Streamlined fragments of ejected lava

Explosive Pyroclastic Debris

Intermediate and felsic magmas erupt explosively
More viscous than basaltic magma (from SiO2)
Contain more gas
Produce large quantities of volcanic ash

Pyroclastic Flows
Avalanches of hot ash (200Co450oC) that race downslope
Moving up to 300 km/h
Many famous examples: Mt. Vesuvius, Mt. Pelee, and Mt.
Augustine, Mt. Unzen

Ash flow, Mt Pinatubo, Philippines, 1991

Colima, Mexico
1998

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/Hazards/What/Lava/19981122Pf_caption.html

Pyroclastic flows
Mt. Tavurvur, Papua New Guinea, 8-29-2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUREX8aFbMs#t=38

Mt. Unzen, Japan 1991 (1:12)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvjwt9nnwXY

Mt. Merapi, Java 2010 (7:43)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz7WCttwXQk

Mt. Pinatubo, Phillipines 1991 (2:07)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf1PWap_GTw

Pyroclastic Deposits
Tuff Lithified ash with or without lapilli
Air-fall tuff Accumulations of ash that fell like snow
Ignimbrite (welded tuff) pyroclastic flow
Tuff that is deposited while hot
Hot ash fuses (welds) together while cooling
Deposits can be very thick (up to ~500 m)

Air-fall tuff

Ignimbrite

Copper Canyon, Mexico

4x large than Grand Canyon in AZ
Over 1.5 km-thick section of ignimbrites
All erupted around the same age (30 Ma)

Volcanic Landforms

Craters
A bowl-shaped depression atop a volcano
Up to 500 m across; 200 m deep.
Form as erupted lava piles up around the vent
Summit eruptions Located within the summit crater
Flank eruption Located along the side of a volcano

Puu Oo crater, Kilauea

Calderas
A gigantic volcanic depression
One to ten kilometers across
Steep sidewalls and flat floors
Form from massive eruptions

Figure 4.1a

Caldera Formation
As the magma chamber
drains, collapse begins.

An explosive
eruption starts.
Time

After the eruption,

a caldera remains.

Kilauea caldera: 6 x 6 km

Halemaumau crater

Crater Lake Caldera, Oregon

Long Valley caldera, eastern CA

Long Valley caldera

Formed 32 x 18 km caldera during a
large explosive eruption at 760 ka
Bishop Tuff erupted from caldera
Still active!

Mammoth Mountain
Located on Long Valley caldera
ring fracture
dacite-rhyolite lava domes/flows
110,000 - 57,000 yr ago

Yellowstone

Yellowstone
Continental hot spot volcano
Caldera-forming eruptions at 2.1 Ma, 1.3 Ma, and 640 ka
Still active, last lava flow at 70 ka

Mt. St. Helens

1980

Yellowstone
2.0 Ma

Long Valley
0.76 Ma

Yellowstone
0.64 Ma
500 km

Ash from caldera-forming eruptions can travel great distances

Shield volcanoes
Broad, slightly domed-shaped
Made by lateral flow of low-viscosity basaltic lava
Have a low slope and cover large geographic areas
Mauna Loa, Hawaii

Shield: low viscosity,

(not a shield volcano)

total relief ~17,170 m (56,000 ft)

For shield volcanoes

Volume: Large to very large
Viscosity: Low (basalt)
Volatiles: Low

Cinder cones
Conical piles of tephra (cinders)
Built of ejected lapilli-sized fragments piled up at a vent
Often symmetrical with a deep summit crater

Cinder cone
Volume: small

Paracutin, Mexico

Viscosity: Low

Volatiles: mid to high

400 m
Mt. Etna, Italy

Stratovolcanoes (Composite volcanoes).

Large, cone-shaped volcano

Composed of alternating layers of lava and tephra
Often symmetric; can be odd shapes from landslides, etc.
Examples include Mt. Fuji, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Vesuvius

Stratovolcano (or composite)

Volume: Large
Viscosity: High
Volatiles: mid to high

New Zealand

Animation: Growth of a Stratovolcano

A stratovolcano such as Japans Mount Fuji consists of

alternating layers of ash and lava. This animation examines
the processes by which a stratovolcano forms.

Flood basalts

Flood Basalt

Volume: Very Large

Viscosity: Low
Explosivity: Low Composition: Basalt
Flood basalts possibly linked to mass extinction events

Volatiles: Low

Columbia River Flood Basalts

164000 km2
Over 300 separate
flows
3500 m thick in
places
Erupted 17.5 - 6
Ma

Volcanic eruption classification

Hawaiian
Low explosiveness
Eruptive column height <2 km
spatter lapilli & bombs
Typically mafic composition

Strombolian
Low-medium explosiveness
Eruptive column height <10 km

Mt. Etna: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1X2gP028pY&hd=1

Vulcanian
Medium explosiveness
Eruptive column height <20 km
Ash, lapilli, blocks/bombs
Typically intermediate composition

Plinian

High explosiveness
Eruptive column height <55 km
Intermediate-felsic composition

Air Traffic Chaos across Europe Caused by Plinian eruption -2010, Eyjafjallajokull

Case History of a Plinian Eruption of a

Stratovolcano, Mt. Saint Helens
After

Before

80

Mount St. Helens (1980)

1. Magma intrudes volcano

2. Mag. 5.0 EQ triggers

landslide
3. Release of pressure on
magma - lateral blast
4. Plinian eruption column
forms. 1 km3 of ash
erupted.

Before

Mt. Saint Helens

82

After

Mt. Saint Helens Eruption Sequence

Bulge on the north flank

83

Magnitude 5 earthquake triggers large landslide.

84

Removal of overburden, decompresses the magma

below initiating a lateral blast from the north flank

Expanding gasses blast from the flank of the

volcano at speeds >300 mph
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgRnVhbfIKQ

Lateral Blast
Shockwave Damage
- Blasts rarely eject sideways

87

Hazards and Prediction

Where, tectonically, do dangerous volcanoes

occur?

Island arc

Continental arc

Rift

Hot spot

Mid-ocean
ridge

Volcanoes erupt along plate boundaries, (rifts subduction zones, and above hot spots)..

Most hazardous volcanoes at

subduction zones

Some Types of Volcanic Hazards

Volcanic Hazards

Ash falls
Ash flows (pyroclastic flow)
Lava Flows
Mud flows (lahar or debris flow)
Gases
Tsunamis
Climate change/Famine

Lahars (Volcanic Mudflows)

Thick slurry of water and debris created by

eruption products entering river channels via
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x5tZAHEoRU
glacial melt or rain.

Lava flows

Goma,
Congo, 2002

Hawaii

San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico, 1943

Heimaey,
Iceland
1973

Gases: Cameroon (CO2)

Long Valley CO2 emissions

Predicting Eruptions
Warning signs
Increased seismicity
Increased heat flow
Expansion of volcano
Increased / change in gas emissions

Indicate imminent eruption, but not exact timing or

eruption style.

Mitigating Hazards
Danger assessment maps.
Delineate danger areas.
Pyroclastic flows.
Lahars.
Landslides.

Used for planning, zoning.

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questions now posted