VOLCANISM ON EARTH
Earth's vents that erupt molten rock, ash, and gas.
Volcanism
- Volcanism is when molten rock (magma) erupts onto the surface of Earth or another world with a solid surface.
- Lava and volcanic gases come out of a crack in the surface called a vent.
Volcanism on Earth
- Volcanoes can be found in a lot of different geological places on Earth.
- Most of these have to do with the edges of the huge, hard plates that make up the crust and upper mantle.
- About 80% of active volcanoes and other related events happen where two tectonic plates meet and one plate slides over the other, pushing it down into the core to be reabsorbed.
- Along the path of the oceanic ridge system is another major area of active volcanism.
- This is where the plates move apart on both sides of the ridge and magma wells up from the mantle, making a new ocean floor along the edges of both plates.
- Almost all of this volcanic action takes place underwater.
- In some places, the oceanic peaks are high enough above the deep seabed that they rise out of the water, causing subaerial volcanism.
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