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World map of active volcanoes and plate boundaries Kīlauea's lava entering the sea Lava flows at Holuhraun, Iceland, September 2014. An active volcano is a volcano that has erupted during the Holocene (the current geologic epoch that began approximately 11,700 years ago), is currently erupting, or has the potential to erupt in the future. [1]
Volcanoes vary greatly in their level of activity, with individual volcanic systems having an eruption recurrence ranging from several times a year to once in tens of thousands of years. [76] Volcanoes are informally described as erupting, active, dormant, or extinct, but the definitions of these terms are not entirely uniform among ...
active volcano A volcano that is currently erupting, or one that has erupted within the last 10,000 years (the Holocene) or during recorded history. [3] adret The sunny, warm aspect of a hill or mountain, as opposed to the ubac or shady side. [4] affluent See tributary. agricultural geography
Mount Ruang spewed lava and and ash on April 17, seen from Sitaro, North Sulawesi. It also triggered lightning in the ash cloud -- a common phenomenon in powerful volcano eruptions.
The word lava comes from Italian and is probably derived from the Latin word labes, which means a fall or slide. [2] [3] An early use of the word in connection with extrusion of magma from below the surface is found in a short account of the 1737 eruption of Vesuvius, written by Francesco Serao, who described "a flow of fiery lava" as an analogy to the flow of water and mud down the flanks of ...
Volcanologists frequently visit volcanoes, especially active ones, to observe volcanic eruptions, collect eruptive products including tephra (such as ash or pumice), rock and lava samples. One major focus of enquiry is the prediction of eruptions; there is currently no accurate way to do this, but predicting or forecasting eruptions, like ...
People watch and record images of lava from the Mauna Loa volcano Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, near Hilo, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) After Mauna Loa, also known as the world's largest active ...
In the continental U.S., the most recent cataclysmic eruption of a volcano was Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. “Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!” radioed U.S. Geological Survey scientist ...