Volcanism, also spelled vulcanism, any of various processes and phenomena associated with the

surficial discharge of molten rock, pyroclastic fragments, or hot water and steam,
including volcanoes, geysers, and fumaroles.
On Earth, volcanism occurs in several distinct geologic settings. Most of these are associated with the
boundaries of the enormous rigid plates that make up the lithosphere—the crust and upper mantle. The
majority of active terrestrial volcanoes (roughly 80 percent) and related phenomena occur where two
lithospheric plates converge and one overrides the other, forcing it down into the mantle to be reabsorbed.
Long curved chains of islands known as island arcs form at such subduction zones. Volcanoes of the
explosive type make up many of the islands of a single arc or the inner row of islands of a double arc. All
such islands that border the Pacific basin are built up from the seafloor, usually by the extrusion of
basaltic and andesitic magmas.
A second major site of active volcanism is along the axis of the oceanic ridge system, where the plates
move apart on both sides of the ridge and magma wells up from the mantle, creating new ocean floor
along the trailing edges of both plates. Virtually all of this volcanic activity occurs underwater. In a few
places the oceanic ridges are sufficiently elevated above the deep seafloor that they emerge from the
ocean, and subaerial volcanism occurs. Iceland is the best-known example. The magmas that are erupted
along the oceanic ridges are basaltic in composition.
A relatively small number of volcanoes occur within plates far from their margins. Some, as exemplified by
the volcanic islands of Hawaii that lie in the interior of the Pacific Plate, are thought to occur because of
plate movement over a “hot spot” from which magmas can penetrate to the surface. These magmas
characteristically generate a chain of progressively older volcanoes that mark the direction of past motion
of the plate over a particular hot spot. The active volcanoes of the East African Rift Valley also occur
within a plate (the African Plate), but they appear to result from a different mechanism—possibly the
beginning of a new region of plates moving apart.

Pyroclastic rocks or pyroclastics (derived from the Greek: πῦρ, meaning fire; and κλαστός, meaning
broken) are clastic rocks composed solely or primarily of volcanic materials. Where the volcanic material
has been transported and reworked through mechanical action, such as by wind or water, these rocks are
termed volcaniclastic.
Volcanic gases are gases given off by active (or, at times, by dormant) volcanoes. These include gases
trapped in cavities (vesicles) in volcanic rocks, dissolved or dissociated gases in magma and lava, or
gases emanating directly from lava or indirectly through ground water heated by volcanic action.
Fractional crystallization, or crystal fractionation, is one of the most important geochemical and
physical processes operating within the Earth's crust and mantle. It is one of the main processes
of magmatic differentiation. Fractional crystallization is the removal and segregation from a melt
of mineralprecipitates; except in special cases, removal of the crystals changes the composition of the
magma. In essence, fractional crystallization is the removal of early formed crystals from an originally
homogeneous magma (for example, by gravity settling) so that these crystals are prevented from further
reaction with the residual melt. The composition of the remaining melt becomes relatively depleted in
some components and enriched in others, resulting in the precipitation of a sequence of different
minerals.
What is Volcanism?
Volcanism is anything having to do with the eruption of a volcano. This doesn’t only include lava (molten
rock) overflowing from the opening of the volcano. It also includes pyroclastic fragments (parts of rock), as
well as hot water or steam. Volcanism takes place both above the surface of Earth, as well as beneath its
surface. However, volcanism does not just occur in volcanoes, or even just on Earth! It can occur in
geysers and fumaroles and on the planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars!

What are the Different Types of Volcanism?

There are three different types of volcanism: extrusive, intrusive and plutonic.
Extrusive
This is when molten lava escapes the Earth and reaches the surface.
Intrusive
This is when molten magma cools and hardens beneath the surface of the Earth.
Plutonic
This is when molten magma cools and hardens deep beneath the surface of the Earth, far below the crust.
This creates igneous rock.
Where does Volcanism Occur?
Convergent Boundaries:
Volcanism occurs in very specific geographic areas. Most of these are distinguishable by the plates in the
Earth’s lithosphere. Most active volcanoes are above two lithospheric plates, one overlapping the
other. These plates are very heavy. The weight of the top plate drags the bottom plate down to the Earth’s
mantle, where it is then reabsorbed.
Many explosive volcanoes form in areas like this in a chain, called island arcs. They can be one long chain
(a single arc), or two chains with one in front of the other (a double arc).
Mid-Ocean Ridges
Another type of plate structure where volcanism is found in an oceanic ridge system. This is a mountain range that is
underwater, and it’s found in every ocean of the entire world!
These plates move away from each other to both sides of the ridge. Magma then comes up from the Earth’s mantle
and fills the space in between the two plates. This creates a new ocean floor! This all happens underwater,
but occasionally the ridges do rise above the water. This is subaerial volcanism.
Hotspots, and Island Chains
The last type of plate structure is rare but can happen. This is volcanoes forming in the middle of a tectonic plate.
Scientists think it is from the plates passing over a “hot spot“, where magma has risen close to the surface.
These also form in chains. However, you can tell these from others because they move from young volcanoes to
older. This is because the older volcanoes are where the plate was. The young volcanoes are the plate moving over
the hot spot.