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These gas bubbles within the magma accumulate and coalesce into large bubbles, called gas slugs. These grow large enough to rise through the lava column. [14] Upon reaching the surface, the difference in air pressure causes the bubble to burst with a loud pop, [13] throwing magma in the air in a way similar to a soap bubble.
Tephra is a generalized word for the various bits of debris launched out of a volcano during an eruption, regardless of their size. [4] Pyroclastic materials are generally categorized according to size: dust measures at <1/8 mm, ash is 1/8–2 mm, cinders are 2–64 mm, and bombs and blocks are both >64 mm. [5] Different hazards are associated with the different kinds of pyroclastic materials.
Because the magma is viscous, the bubbles remain trapped in the magma. [2] As the magma nears the surface, the bubbles and thus the magma increase in volume. The pressure of the magma builds until the blockage is blasted out in an explosive eruption through the weakest point in the cone, usually the crater.
The types of minerals present in volcanic ash are dependent on the chemistry of the magma from which it erupted. Considering that the most abundant elements found in silicate magma are silicon and oxygen, the various types of magma (and therefore ash) produced during volcanic eruptions are most commonly explained in terms of their silica content.
[3] [15] This splinters the surface of the lava, and the magma then collects into sacks that often pile up in front of the flow, forming a structure called a pillow. [3] A’a lava has a rough, spiny surface made of clasts of lava called clinkers. [16] Block lava is another type of lava, with less jagged fragments than in a’a lava. [17]
Pyroclasts include juvenile pyroclasts derived from chilled magma, mixed with accidental pyroclasts, which are fragments of country rock.Pyroclasts of different sizes are classified (from smallest to largest) as volcanic ash, lapilli, or volcanic blocks (or, if they exhibit evidence of having been hot and molten during emplacement, volcanic bombs).
Eruption columns form in explosive volcanic activity, when the high concentration of volatile materials in the rising magma causes it to be disrupted into fine volcanic ash and coarser tephra. The ash and tephra are ejected at speeds of several hundred metres per second, and can rise rapidly to heights of several kilometres, lifted by enormous ...
A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile -charged magma is trapped beneath it, and this can sometimes lead to an explosive eruption.