Top 3 Most Famous Volcanoes
1 - Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius is an active volcano situated in southern Italy, close to the city of Naples. It has erupted way more than 30 times but it's most famous eruption was in A.D 79, when it destroyed and buried in ash two ancient roman cities: Pompeii and Stabiae (“Top 10 Famous Volcanoes”, 2013). The eruption covered both cities with lava and ash. Archaeologists don't know exactly how many people died, but they are sure that at least 1,000 did (“Top 10 Famous Volcanoes”, 2013).
2 - Krakatoa
The Krakatoa is a volcano situated on the volcanic island (an island caused by the eruption of a volcano) of Krakatoa. Krakatoa island is situated in Indonesia, in the Sunda straight. The Krakatoa volcano is famous for it's eruption and explosion in 1833 that killed at least 36,000 people, destroyed three quarters of the island and caused massive tsunamis (“Krakatoa”, 24 Apr. 2013; “Top 10 Famous Volcanoes”, 2013). The eruption had 13,000 times the power of an atomic bomb and it is the loudest sound ever heard in human history (“Krakatoa”, 24 Apr. 2013). According to Wikipedia, the eruption was heard up to 4,800km away.
3 - Mount St. Helens
Mount st. Helens is located in Skamania country, Washington state in the USA. The volcano was ready to erupt two months before it actually did. What caused the eruption was an earthquake. When the volcano erupted, Lava shot 24km in the air at about 482km/h and at the same time, a mushroom-shaped cloud of ash shot 25km in the air (“Mount St. Helens”, 27 Apr. 2013). The cloud of ash eventually covered three whole states and thousands of animals plus 57 people were killed (“Top 10 Famous Volcanoes”, 2013).
Parts Of A Volcano - Vocabulary
A volcano is constituted of a main vent (also called pipe), a crater, a secondary vent, flanks, a conduit and a magma chamber.
- Main Vent (AKA Pipe or Conduit): the main vent is the main tunnel in which the lava shoots out to the surface.
- Crater: The crater of a volcano is a round shaped depression caused because of eruptions (Cain,
Fraser, 14 Apr. 2009). The main vent is at the bottom center of a crater.
- Secondary vent(s): On big volcanoes, lava can spew out from other vents than the main vents: secondary vents.
- Flank: the flanks of a volcano is the sides of the volcano.
- Magma Chamber: A magma chamber is a large underground reservoir of lava, under the earths crust (in the mantle) (Cain,
Fraser, 14 Apr. 2009). The magma is less dense then the one surrounding it and reaches the surface by using the cracks in the crust (Cain,
Fraser, 14 Apr. 2009). When I reaches the surface, it causes an eruption
When Erupting
When a volcano erupts, Lava from the magma chamber and pyroclastic flows flow out of the crater. There are also volcanic bombs and ash clouds that get spewed from the crater.
- Ash cloud: is ash and small rocks and glass spewed from the volcano when it erupts.
- Lava: Lava is magma that reaches the surface, spewed from a volcano when it erupts. When it first comes out of the volcano, it can have a temperature higher than 700°C but it cools down as it flows.
- Volcanic Bombs: Volcanic bombs are chunks of lava that solidify before hitting the ground. Some can be up to 6m in diameter and can land more than 500m from the volcano.
- Cinder Cones: a cone on a volcano entirely created by pyroclastic flows.
- Pumice: pumice is a volcanic rock that is ejected from a volcano (“Pumice”, 05 July 2012).
- Pyroclastic flow (AKA nuée ardentes): Pyroclastic flows are very fast moving hot gases and rock which go downhill volcano and can go up to 700km/h. The gases can reach a temperature of more than 1000°C.
Where are Most Volcanoes Found?
Most volcanoes are found where two tectonic plates meet, because when two tectonic plates crash into each other, they form volcanoes. Most of the volcanoes on earth are found in “The Ring Of Fire”, which is a place in the pacific oceans were many plates meet each other (“Where are Volcanoes Found”, N.d). It is called the ring of fire because the volcanoes form a sort of ring.