Geology for Engineering GLY 256 School of Physics

Department of Geology

Chapter 12_Volcanoes

Semester 1_2018
Volcanoes

Watch a Video and Answer Questions

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Exercises 18 April 2018
1. On Earth’s surface as a whole, what process generates the greater volume of
volcanic rock, decompression melting or fluid-induced melting? Which of these
processes creates the more dangerous volcanoes?
2. What is the difference between magma and lava? Describe a geological
situation in which a magma does not form a lava.
3. What are the three major types of volcanic rocks and their intrusive
counterparts? Is kimberlite one of these three types?
4. Most volcanism occurs near plate boundaries. What type of plate boundary
can produce large amounts of rhyolitic lavas?

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Exercises 18 April 2018
5. What evidence suggests that the Yellowstone volcano was produced by a hot
spot?
6. How do scientists predict volcanic eruptions?
7. Give a few examples of what geologists have learned about Earth’s interior by
studying volcanoes and volcanic rocks.
8. Why are eruptions of stratovolcanoes generally more explosive than those of
shield volcanoes?
9. How do interactions between volcanic geosystems and the climate system
increase volcanic hazards?

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanoes
o The geological processes that give rise to volcanoes and volcanic rocks are
known collectively as volcanism
o Temperature readings of rocks as far down as humans have drilled (about 10
km) show that Earth does indeed get hotter with depth
o The temperatures at depths of 100 km and more within the asthenosphere
reach at least 1300°C, high enough for the rocks there to begin to melt
o For this reason, we identify the asthenosphere as a main source of magma,
the molten rock that we call lava after it rises to the surface and erupts

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanoes
o Because magma is liquid, it is less dense than the rocks that produce it
o Therefore, as magma accumulates, it begins to float upward through the
lithosphere
o In some places, the magma may find a path to the surface by fracturing the
lithosphere along zones of weakness, in other places, the rising magma melts
its way toward the surface
o Most of the magma freezes at depth, but some fraction, probably only 10-
30%, eventually reaches the surface and erupts as lava
o A volcano is a hill or mountain constructed from the accumulation of lava and
other erupted materials

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Volcanoes
o Taken together, the rocks, magmas, and processes needed to describe
the entire sequence of events from melting to eruption constitute a
volcanic geosystem
o This type of geosystem can be viewed as a chemical factory that
processes the input material (magmas from the asthenosphere) and
transports the end product (lava) to the surface through an internal
plumbing system

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
o Figure 12.1 is a simplified diagram
of a volcano, showing the plumbing
system through which magma
travels to the surface
o Magmas raising buoyantly through
the lithosphere pool together in a
magma chamber, usually at shallow
depths in the crust
o This chamber periodically empties
through a pipe-like feeder channel
to a central vent on the surface in
repeated cycles of central eruptions
o Lava can also erupt from vertical
cracks and other vents on the
flanks of a volcano

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanoes
o A small fraction of the asthenosphere melts in the first place
o The resulting magma gains chemical components as it melts the
surrounding rocks while raising through the lithosphere
o It loses other components as crystals settle out during transport or in
shallow magma chambers

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Volcanoes
o And its gaseous constituents escape to the atmosphere or ocean as it
erupts at the surface
o By accounting for these changes, we can extract clues to the chemical
composition and physical state of the upper mantle where the lavas
originated
o We can also learn about eruptions that occurred millions or even
billions of years ago by using isotopic dating (see Chapter 8) to
determine the ages of lavas

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanoes
o Lavas of different types produce different landforms
o The differences depend on the chemical composition, gas
content, and temperature of the lavas
o The higher the silica content and the lower the temperature, for
example, the more viscous the lava is, and the more slowly it
moves
o The more gas a lava contains, the more violent its eruption is
likely to be

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Types of Lava
o Erupted lavas, the end products of volcanic geosystems,
usually solidify into one of three major types of igneous
rock (Chapter 4):
• Basalt
• Andesite
• Rhyolite

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Basaltic Lavas
o Basalt is an extrusive igneous rock of mafic composition (high in
magnesium, iron, and calcium) and has the lowest silica content of the
three igneous rock types; its intrusive equivalent is gabbro
o Basaltic magma, the product of mantle melting, is the most common
magma type
o It is produced along mid-ocean ridges and at hot spots within plates, as
well as in continental rift valleys and other zones of extension
o The volcanic island of Hawaii, which is made up primarily of basaltic
lava, lies above a hot spot

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Basaltic Lavas
o Basaltic lavas erupt when hot, fluid magmas fill up a volcano’s
plumbing system and overflow
o Basaltic eruptions are rarely explosive
o On land, a basaltic eruption sends lava down the flanks of the volcano
in great streams that can engulf everything in their path
o When cool, these lavas are black or dark gray, but at their high eruption
temperatures (1000°C to 1200°C), they glow in reds and yellows

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Basaltic Lavas
o Because their temperatures are high and their silica content low, they
are extremely fluid and can flow downhill fast and far
o Lava streams flowing as fast as 100 km/hour have been observed,
although velocities of a few kilometres per hour are more common
o In 1938, two daring Russian volcanologists measured temperatures
and collected gas samples while floating down a river of molten basalt
on a raft of colder solidified lava

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Pahoehoe Lavas
o The surface temperature of
the raft was 300°C, and the
river temperature was 870°C
o Lava streams have been
observed to travel more than
50 km from their sources
o Basaltic lava flows take on
different forms depending on
how they cool

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Pahoehoe Lavas
o On land, they solidify as pahoehoe or
aa (ah-ah)
o Pahoehoe (the word is Hawaiian for
“ropy”) forms when a highly fluid lava
spreads in sheets and a thin, glassy,
elastic skin congeals on its surface
as it cools
o As the molten liquid continues to flow
below the surface, the skin is
dragged and twisted into coiled folds
that resemble rope

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Aa Lavas
o “Aa” is what the unwary exclaim after
venturing barefoot onto lava that
looks like clumps of moist, freshly
lowed earth
o Aa forms when lava loses its gases
and consequently flows more slowly
than pahoehoe, allowing a thick skin
to form
o As the flow continues to move, the
thick skin breaks into rough, jagged
blocks

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Aa Lavas
o The blocks pile up in a steep
front of angular boulders that
advances like a tractor tread
o Aa is truly treacherous to
cross
o A good pair of boots may last
about a week on it, and the
traveler can count on cut
knees and elbows

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Pillow Lavas
o Basaltic lava that cools under water
forms pillow lavas: piles of ellipsoidal,
pillow-like blocks of basalt about a
meter wide
o Pillow lavas are an important
indicator that a region on dry land
was once under water
o Scuba-diving geologists have actually
observed pillow lavas forming on the
ocean floor off Hawaii

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Pillow Lavas
o Tongues of molten basaltic lava
develop a tough, plastic skin on
contact with the cold ocean water
o Because the lava inside the skin
cools more slowly, the pillow’s
interior develops a crystalline
texture, whereas the quickly
chilled skin solidifies to a crystal-
less glass

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Pillow Lavas

o These bulbous pillow lavas,

which were recently extruded
on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, were
photographed from the deep-
sea submersible

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Andesitic Lavas
o Andesite is an extrusive igneous rock with an intermediate silica
content; its intrusive equivalent is diorite
o Andesitic magmas are produced mainly in the volcanic mountain
belts above subduction zones
o The name comes from a prime example: the Andes of South
America

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Andesitic Lavas
o The temperatures of andesitic lavas are lower than those of
basalts, and because their silica content is higher, they flow
more slowly and lump up in sticky masses
o If one of these sticky masses plugs the central vent of a volcano,
gases can build up beneath the plug and eventually blow off the
top of the volcano
o The explosive eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 s a famous
example

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Andesitic Lavas
o Mount St. Helens, an andesitic
volcano in south-western
Washington State, before,
during, and after its cataclysmic
eruption in May 1980, which
ejected about 1 km3 of
pyroclastic material
o The collapsed northern flank can
be seen in the bottom photo

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Andesitic Lavas
o A phreatic eruption of an island-
arc volcano spews out plumes of
steam into the atmosphere
o The volcano, about 6 miles off
the Tongan island of Tongatau, is
one of about 36 in the area

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Andesitic Lavas
o Some of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in history have been
phreatic, or steam, explosions, which occur when hot, gas-charged
magma encounters groundwater or sea-water, generating vast
quantities of superheated steam
o The island of Krakatau, an andesitic volcano in Indonesia, was
destroyed by a phreatic explosion in 1883
o This legendary eruption was heard thousands of kilometres away, and
it generated a tsunami that killed more than 40,000 people

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Rhyolitic Lavas
o Rhyolite is an extrusive igneous rock of felsic
composition (high in sodium and potassium)
with a silica content greater than 68%; its
intrusive equivalent is granite

o It is light in colour, often a pretty pink

o Rhyolitic magmas are produced in zones

where heat from the mantle has melted large
volumes of continental crust
o Today, the Yellowstone volcano is producing
huge amounts of rhyolitic magma that are
building up in shallow chambers

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Rhyolitic Lavas
o Rhyolite has a lower melting point than
andesite, becoming liquid at temperatures
of only 600°C to 800°C
o Because rhyolitic lavas are richer in silica
than any other lava type, they are the
most viscous
o A rhyolitic flow typically moves more than
10 times more slowly than a basaltic flow,
and it tends to pile up in thick, bulbous
deposits
o Gases are easily trapped beneath rhyolitic
lavas, and large rhyolitic volcanoes such
as Yellowstone produce the most
explosive of all volcanic eruptions

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Rhyolitic Lavas
o Aerial view of a rhyolite
dome erupted about
1300 years ago in
Newberry Caldera,
Oregon
o The light coloured
rhyolite flow stands out
against the trees with
Paulina Peak in the
background
o Its dome shape
indicates that the lava
was very viscous

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Textures
o The textures of volcanic rocks, like the surfaces of solidified lava flows,
reflect the conditions under which they solidified
o Volcanic rock often contains little bubbles, created as gases are
released during an eruption
o When magma rises toward Earth’s surface, the pressure on it
decreases, the water vapour and other dissolved gases escaping from
lava as it erupts create gas cavities, or vesicles
o Pumice is an extremely vesicular volcanic rock, usually rhyolitic in
composition Some pumice has so many vesicles that it is light enough
to float on water
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Pyroclastic Deposits
o Water and gases in magma can have even more dramatic effects than bubble
formation
o Before magma erupts, the confining pressure of the overlying rock keeps these
volatiles from escaping
o When the magma raises close to the surface and the pressure drops, the
volatiles may be released with explosive force, shattering the lava and any
overlying solidified rock and sending fragments of various sizes, shapes, and
textures into the air
o These fragments, known as pyroclasts, are classified according to their size

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanic Ejecta
o The finest pyroclasts are fragments
less than 2 mm in diameter, which
are classified as volcanic ash
o Volcanic eruptions can spray ash
high into the atmosphere where ash
that is fine enough to stay aloft can
be carried great distances
o Within 2 weeks of the 1991 eruption
of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines,
for example, its ash was traced all
the way around the world by Earth-
orbiting satellites

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanic Ejecta
o The finest pyroclasts are fragments
less than 2 mm in diameter, which
are classified as volcanic ash
o Volcanic eruptions can spray ash
high into the atmosphere where ash
that is fine enough to stay aloft can
be carried great distances
o Within 2 weeks of the 1991 eruption
of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines,
for example, its ash was traced all
the way around the world by Earth-
orbiting satellites

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanic Ejecta
o Fragments ejected as blobs of lava
that cool in flight and become
rounded, or as chunks torn loose
from previously solidified volcanic
rock, can be much larger
o These fragments are called volcanic
bombs
o Volcanic bombs as large as houses
have been thrown more than 10 km
by explosive eruptions

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Volcanic Breccia
o Sooner or later, these
pyroclasts fall to Earth,
building the largest deposits
near their source
o As they cool, the hot, sticky
fragments become welded
together (lithified)
o Rocks created from smaller
fragments are called tuffs;
those formed from larger
fragments are called breccias

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Pyroclastic Flows
o Pyroclastic flows, which are
particularly spectacular and
often deadly, occur when a
volcano ejects hot ash and
gases in a glowing cloud that
rolls downhill at high speeds
o The solid particles are buoyed
up by the hot gases, so there
is little frictional resistance to
their movement

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Central Eruptions
o Central eruptions discharge
lava or pyroclasts from a
central vent, an opening atop
a pipelike feeder channel
rising from the magma
chamber
o The magma ascends through
this channel to erupt at
Earth’s surface
o Central eruptions create the
most familiar of all volcanic
features: the volcanic
mountain, shaped like a cone

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Shield Volcanoes
o A lava cone is built by successive
flows of lava from a central vent

o If the lava is basaltic, it flows easily

and spreads widely
o If flows are copious and frequent, they
create a broad, shield-shaped volcano
2 or more kilometers high and many
tens of kilometers in circumference,
with relatively gentle slopes
o Mauna Loa, on the island of Hawaii, is
the classic example of such a shield
volcano

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Shield Volcanoes
o Although it rises only 4 km above
sea level, it is actually the world’s
tallest mountain:
o Measured from its base on the
seafloor, Mauna Loa is 10 km high,
taller than Mount Everest!
o It grew to this enormous size by the
accumulation of thousands of lava
flows, each only a few meters thick,
over a period of about a million years

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o The island of Hawaii actually consists of the overlapping tops of several active
shield volcanoes emerging from the ocean

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Volcanic Domes
o In contrast to basaltic lavas,
andesitic and rhyolitic lavas are
so viscous they can barely flow
o They often produce a volcanic
dome, a bulbous, steep-sided
mass of rock
o Domes look as though the lava
has been squeezed out of a vent
like toothpaste, with very little
lateral spreading

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o Domes often plug vents, trapping gases beneath them
o Pressure can increase until an explosion occurs, blasting the
dome into fragments

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o Domes often plug vents, trapping gases beneath them
o Pressure can increase until an explosion occurs, blasting the
dome into fragments

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Cinder Cones
o When volcanic vents discharge
pyroclasts, these solid fragments
can build up to create cinder
cones
o The profile of a cinder cone is
determined by the angle of
repose of the fragments:
• The maximum angle at which the
fragments will remain stable
rather than sliding downhill

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o The larger fragments, which fall near the vent, form very steep but stable slopes
o Finer particles are carried farther from the vent and form gentler slopes at the base of
the cone
o The classic concave-shaped volcanic cone with its central vent at the summit develops
in this way

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Stratovolcanoes
o When a volcano emits lava
as well as pyroclasts,
alternating lava flows and
beds of pyroclasts build a
concave-shaped
composite volcano, or
stratovolcano
o Lava that solidifies in the
central feeder channel and
in radiating dikes
strengthens the cone
structure

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o Stratovolcanoes are common above subduction zones
• E.g., Mount Fuji in Japan, Mount Vesuvius and Mount Etna in Italy, and Mount
Rainier in Washington State
o Mount St. Helens had a near-perfect stratovolcano shape until its eruption in 1980
destroyed its northern flank

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Craters
o A bowl-shaped pit, or crater, is found at the summit of most volcanic
mountains, surrounding the central vent
o During an eruption, the upwelling lava overflows the crater walls
o When the eruption ceases, the lava that remains in the crater often
sinks back into the vent and solidifies, and the crater may become
partly filled by rock fragments that fall back into it
o When the next eruption occurs, that material may be blasted out of the
crater

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Craters
o Because a crater’s walls are
steep, they may cave in or
become eroded over time
o In this way, a crater can grow to
several times the diameter of the
vent and hundreds of meters
deep
o The crater of Mount Etna in Sicily,
for example, is currently 300 m in
diameter

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Craters
o Because a crater’s walls are
steep, they may cave in or
become eroded over time
o In this way, a crater can grow to
several times the diameter of the
vent and hundreds of meters
deep
o The crater of Mount Etna in Sicily,
for example, is currently 300 m in
diameter

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Calderas
o When great volumes of magma are
discharged rapidly from a large
magma chamber, the chamber can no
longer support its roof
o In such cases, the overlying volcanic
structure can collapse catastrophically,
leaving a large, steep-walled, basin-
shaped depression much larger than a
crater, called a caldera
o The development of the caldera that
forms Crater Lake in Oregon is shown
in

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Calderas
o When great volumes of magma are
discharged rapidly from a large
magma chamber, the chamber can no
longer support its roof
o In such cases, the overlying volcanic
structure can collapse catastrophically,
leaving a large, steep-walled, basin-
shaped depression much larger than a
crater, called a caldera
o The development of the caldera that
forms Crater Lake in Oregon is shown
in

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Calderas
o Calderas can be impressive
features, ranging in diameter
from a few km to 50 km or
more
o Owing to their size and high-
volume eruptions, large
caldera systems are
sometimes called
“supervolcanoes”
o The Yellowstone
supervolcano, which is the
largest active volcano in the
United States, has a caldera
with an area greater than
Rhode Island (3 140 km²)

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Calderas
o After some hundreds of thousands of years, enough fresh magma may
re-enter the collapsed magma chamber to re-inflate it, forcing the
caldera floor to dome upward again and creating a resurgent caldera
o The cycle of eruption, collapse, and resurgence may occur repeatedly
over geologic time
o Three times over the last 2 million years, the Yellowstone supervolcano
has erupted catastrophically, in each instance ejecting hundreds or
thousands of times more material than the 1980 Mount St. Helens
eruption and depositing ash over much of the western United States

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o Other resurgent calderas are Valles Caldera in New Mexico and Long Valley
Caldera in California, which last erupted about 1.2 million and 760,000 years
ago, respectively

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Diatremes
o When magma from Earth’s deep interior escapes
explosively, the vent and the feeder channel below it
are often left filled with volcanic breccia as the eruption
wanes
o The resulting structure is called a diatreme
o Shiprock, a formation that towers over the surrounding
plain in New Mexico, is a diatreme exposed by erosion
of the sedimentary rocks through which it erupted
o To transcontinental air travelers, Shiprock looks like a
gigantic black skyscraper in the red desert

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Stage 1

o Fresh magma fills a magma

chamber and triggers a
volcanic eruption

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Stage 2

o The eruption continues, and

the magma chamber
becomes partly depleted

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Stage 3

o The mountain summit

collapses into the empty
chamber, forming a caldera
o Large pyroclastic flows
accompany the collapse,
blanketing the caldera and a
surrounding area of hundreds
of square kilometres

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Stage 4

o A lake forms in the caldera

o As the residual magma in the
chamber cools, minor eruptive
activity continues in the form of
hot springs and gas emissions
o A small volcanic cone forms in the
caldera

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The Formation of Diatremes

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Mr LV Tibane, 2018
The Formation of Diatremes
o The most exotic diatremes are kimberlite pipes, named after the
fabled Kimberley diamond mines of South Africa
o Kimberlite is a volcanic type of peridotite an ultramafic rock
composed primarily of olivine
o Kimberlite pipes also contain a variety of mantle fragments,
including diamonds that were pulled into the magma as it
exploded toward the surface

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The Formation of Diatremes
o The extremely high pressures needed to squeeze carbon into the
mineral diamond are reached only at depths greater than 150 km
o From careful studies of diamonds and other mantle fragments found
in kimberlite pipes, geologists have been able to reconstruct
sections of the mantle as if they had had been able to drill down to
200 km or more
o These studies provide strong support for the theory that the upper
mantle is made primarily of peridotite

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Fissure Eruptions
o The largest volcanic
eruptions do not come from
a central vent, but through
large, nearly vertical cracks
in Earth’s surface,
sometimes tens of
kilometres long

o Such fissure eruptions are

the main style of volcanism
along mid-ocean ridges,
where new oceanic crust is
formed

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 Fissure Eruptions

Left: In a fissure
eruption, highly fluid
basaltic lava flows
rapidly away from the
fissures

Right: These volcanic

cones lie along the
Laki fissure in
Iceland, which
opened in 1783 and
erupted the largest
flow of lava on land in
recorded history

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Fissure Eruptions
o A moderate-sized fissure eruption occurred in 1783 on a
segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that comes ashore in Iceland
o A fissure 32 km long opened and, in six months, spewed out 12
km3 of basalt, enough to cover Manhattan to a height about
halfway up the Empire State Building
o The eruption also released more than 100 megatons of sulphur
dioxide, creating a poisonous blue haze that hung over Iceland
for more than a year

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Fissure Eruptions
o The resulting crop failures caused three-quarters of the island’s
livestock and one-fifth of its human population to die of
starvation
o Sulphuric aerosols from the Laki eruption were transported by
the prevailing winds across Europe, causing crop damage and
respiratory illnesses in many countries

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Flood Basalts
o Highly fluid basaltic lavas erupting from fissures on continents can
spread out in sheets over flat terrain
o Successive flows often pile up into immense basalt plateaus, called
flood basalts, rather than forming a shield volcano as they do when the
eruption is confined to a central vent
o In North America, a huge eruption of flood basalts about 16 million
years ago buried 160,000 km2 of pre-existing topography in what is
now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to form the Columbia Plateau

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Flood Basalts
o Individual flows were more than 100 m thick, and some were so
fluid that they travelled more than 500 km from their source
o An entirely new landscape with new river valleys has since
developed atop the lava that buried the old surface
o Plateaus formed by flood basalts are found on every continent
as well as on the seafloor

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Ash-flow Deposits
o Eruptions of pyroclasts on continents have produced extensive sheets
of hard volcanic tuffs called ash-flow deposits
o A succession of forests in Yellowstone National Park have been buried
under such ash flows
o Some of the largest pyroclastic deposits on the planet are the ash flows
erupted in the mid-Cenozoic era, 45 - 30 Ma years ago, through
fissures in what is now the Basin and Range province of the western
United States

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Ash-flow Deposits
o The amount of material
released during this
pyroclastic flare-up was a
staggering 500,000 km3
enough to cover the entire
state of Nevada with a layer
of rock nearly 2 km thick!
o Humans have never
witnessed one of these
spectacular events

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Interactions of Volcanoes with Other Geosystems
Old Faithful geyser, in
Yellowstone, National Park

A fumarole encrusted with

sulphur deposits on the Merapi
volcano in Indonesia

The Columbia Plateau

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Hydrothermal Activity

o Near spreading centers, seawater

circulates through the oceanic
crust, is heated by magma, and is
reinjected into the ocean, forming
black smokers and depositing
minerals on the seafloor

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Volcanism and the Atmosphere
o Satellite image of the huge ash cloud
spewing from the erupting Cordón
Caulle volcano in central Chile on June
13, 2011
o The ash plume extends 800 km from
the snow-covered Andes mountains
(on left side of photo) to the Argentine
city of Buenos Aires (center right of
photo)
o This ash cloud encircled the planet,
closing airports in Australia and New
Zealand

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanism and the Atmosphere
o Volcanism in the lithosphere affects weather and climate by changing
the composition and properties of the atmosphere
o Large eruptions can inject sulphurous gases into the atmosphere tens
of kilometres above Earth
o Through various chemical reactions, these gases form an aerosol (a
fine airborne mist) containing tens of millions of metric tons of sulphuric
acid
o Such aerosols may block enough of the Sun’s radiation from reaching
Earth’s surface to lower global temperatures for a year or two

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanism and the Atmosphere
o The eruption of Mount Pinatubo, one of the largest explosive
eruptions of the twentieth century, led to a global cooling of at
least 0.5°C in 1992
o Chlorine emissions from Mount Pinatubo also hastened the loss
of ozone in the atmosphere, nature’s shield that protects the
biosphere from the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation
o The debris lofted into the atmosphere during the 1815 eruption
of Mount Tambora in Indonesia resulted in even greater cooling

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Volcanism and the Atmosphere
o The next year, the Northern Hemisphere suffered a very cold
summer; according to a diarist in Vermont, “no month passed
without a frost, nor one without a snow.”
o The drop in temperature and the ash fall caused widespread
crop failures
o More than 90,000 people perished in that “year without a
summer,”

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Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Intraplate Volcanism: The Mantle Plume Hypothesis

o The movement of a plate over a hot spot generates a trail of

progressively older volcanoes
o The volcanoes of the Hawaiian island chain and its extension into the
north-western Pacific (the Emperor seamounts) show a north-westward
trend toward progressively older ages
o A chain of progressively older calderas marks the movement of the
North American Plate over a continental hot spot during the past 16
million years

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Measuring Plate Movements Using Hotspot Tracks
o Hot spots are anchored by plumes raising from the deep mantle and geologists use the
distribution of their volcanic tracks to compute how the tectonic plates move with respect to the
deep mantle

o The term “absolute plate movements” is used to distinguish them from the movements of
plates relative to each other

o The absolute plate movements calculated from hot-spot tracks have helped geologists
understand the forces driving the plates

o Plates that are being subducted along large fractions of their boundaries, e.g., the Pacific,
Nazca, Cocos, Indian, and Australian plates are moving rapidly with respect to the hot spots.

o Contrarily, the plates without much subducting slab, e.g., the Eurasian and African plates are
moving slowly

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Measuring Plate Movements Using Hotspot Tracks
o The use of hot-spot tracks to reconstruct absolute plate movements works fairly well for recent
plate movements

o Over longer periods, however, a number of problems arise:

• For instance, according to the fixed-hot-spot hypothesis, the sharp bend in the Hawaiian
aseismic ridge (where it becomes the north-trending Emperor seamount chain should
coincide with an abrupt shift in the direction of the Pacific Plate

• However, no sign of such a shift is evident in magnetic isochron maps, leading some
geologists to question the fixed-hot-spot hypothesis
• Others have pointed out that, in a convecting mantle, plumes would not necessarily
remain fixed relative to one another, but might be moved about by shifting convection
currents

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Formation of Flood Basalts
o A speculative model for the formation of flood basalts and
other large igneous provinces
o A new mantle plume rises from the core-mantle boundary,
led by a hot, turbulent plume head
o When the plume head reaches the top of the mantle, it
flattens, generating a huge volume of basaltic magma,
which erupts as flood basalts.

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanism and Human Affairs
o Large volcanic eruptions are of interest to academic geologists
o Roughly 600 million people live near active volcanoes and could be directly
affected by eruptions
o A large eruptions could disrupt or even destroy civilization itself
o We must understand volcanic hazards to reduce the risks they pose
o We also need to understand and appreciate the benefits volcanism provides to
society in the form of:
• Mineral resources,
• Fertile soils, and
• Thermal energy
Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Volcanic Hazards

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Mr LV Tibane, 2018
 Armero, Colombia, was submerged by lahars after an eruption of the long-
dormant Nevado del Ruiz volcano in 1985

Mount Rainier, seen from

Tacoma, Washington

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Predicting Eruptions
o Can volcanic eruptions be predicted? In many cases, the answer is yes
o Instrumented monitoring can detect signals such as earthquakes, swelling
of the volcano, and gas emissions that warn of impending eruptions
o People at risk can be evacuated if the authorities are organized and
prepared
o Scientists monitoring Mount St. Helens were able to warn people before its
eruption in 1980
o Government infrastructure was in place to evaluate the warnings and to
enforce evacuation orders, so very few people were killed

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Controlling Eruptions
o Can we go further by actually controlling volcanic eruptions?
o Not likely, because large volcanoes release energy on a scale
that dwarfs our capabilities for control
o Under special circumstances and on a small scale, however, the
damage can be reduced
o Perhaps the most successful attempt to manage volcanic activity
was made on the Icelandic island of Heimaey in January 1973

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Controlling Eruptions
o By spraying advancing lava with seawater, residents
cooled and slowed the flow, preventing the lava from
blocking the entrance to their harbour and saving some
homes from destruction
o The best focus for our efforts, however, will be the
establishment of more warning and evacuation systems
and more rigorous restriction of settlements in potentially
dangerous locations

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Natural Resources from Volcanoes
o In this chapter, we have seen something of the beauty of
volcanoes and something of their destructiveness
o But it should be kept in mind that volcanoes contribute to our
well-being in many, though often indirect, ways
o Soil derived from volcanic materials are exceptionally fertile
because of the mineral nutrients they contain

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Natural Resources from Volcanoes
o Volcanic rock, gases, and steam are also sources of important
industrial materials and chemicals, such as pumice, boric acid,
ammonia, sulphur, carbon dioxide, and some metals
o Hydrothermal activity is responsible for the deposition of unusual
minerals that concentrate relatively rare elements, particularly metals,
into ore deposits of great economic value
o Seawater circulating through mid-ocean ridges is a major factor in the
formation of such ores and in the maintenance of the chemical balance
of the oceans

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Natural Resources from Volcanoes
o In some regions where geothermal gradients are steep, Earth’s internal heat
can be tapped to heat homes and drive electric generators
o Geothermal energy depends on the heating of water as it passes through a
region of hot rock (a heat reservoir) that may be hundreds or thousands of
meters beneath Earth’s surface
o Hot water or steam can be brought to the surface through boreholes drilled for
the purpose
o Usually, the water is naturally occurring groundwater that seeps downward
along fractures in rock
o Less typically, the water is artificially introduced by pumping from the surface

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Natural Resources from Volcanoes
o By far the most abundant source of geothermal energy is naturally occurring
groundwater that has been heated to temperatures of 80°C to 180°C
o Water at these relatively low temperatures is used for residential, commercial,
and industrial heating
o Warm groundwater drawn from a heat reservoir in the Paris sedimentary basin
now heats more than 20,000 apartments in France
o Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, which sits atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, is
almost entirely heated by geothermal energy
o Heat reservoirs with temperatures above 180°C are useful for generating
electricity

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Natural Resources from Volcanoes
o They are present primarily in regions of recent volcanism as hot, dry rock,
natural hot water, or natural steam
o Naturally occurring water heated above the boiling point and naturally occurring
steam are highly prized resources
o The world’s largest facility for producing electricity from natural steam, located
at the Geysers, 120 km north of San Francisco, generates more than 600
megawatts of electricity
o Some 70 geothermal electricity-generating plants operate in California, Utah,
Nevada, and Hawaii, producing 2800 megawatts of power enough to supply
about a million people.

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
 o The Geysers, one of the world’s
largest supplies of natural steam

o The geothermal energy is

converted into electricity for San
Francisco, 120 km to the south

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Exercises
1. On Earth’s surface as a whole, what process generates the greater
volume of volcanic rock, decompression melting or fluid-induced
melting? Which of these processes creates the more dangerous
volcanoes?
2. What is the difference between magma and lava? Describe a
geological situation in which a magma does not form a lava
3. What are the three major types of volcanic rocks and their intrusive
counterparts? Is kimberlite one of these three types?

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Exercises
4. What type of volcano is the Arenal volcano, shown in Figure
12.10?
5. Most volcanism occurs near plate boundaries. What type of
plate boundary can produce large amounts of rhyolitic lavas?
6. What evidence suggests that the Yellowstone volcano was
produced by a hot spot?
7. How do scientists predict volcanic eruptions?

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Thought Questions
1. What might be the effects on civilization of a Yellowstone-type caldera eruption,
such as the one described at the opening of this chapter?
2. Give a few examples of what geologists have learned about Earth’s interior by
studying volcanoes and volcanic rocks.
3. Why are eruptions of stratovolcanoes generally more explosive than those of
shield volcanoes?
4. While on a field trip, you come across a volcanic formation that resembles a
field of sandbags. The individual ellipsoidal forms have a smooth, glassy
surface texture. What type of lava is this, and what information does this give
you about its history?

Mr LV Tibane, 2018
Thought Questions
5. Why are the volcanoes on the northwestern side of the island of Hawaii
dormant whereas those on the southeastern side are more active?
6. How do interactions between volcanic geosystems and the climate system
increase volcanic hazards?

Mr LV Tibane, 2018