Volcanoes and Their Formation
Volcanoes form at specific plate boundaries and hotspots due to the movement of magma through the Earth's crust.
At destructive margins, when an oceanic plate is subducted into the mantle, it melts and forms a pool of magma. This magma rises through cracks in the crust called vents and erupts onto the surface as lava, forming a volcano.
At constructive margins, magma rises into the gap between separating plates, forming volcanoes as it settles.
Definition: Hotspots are areas where volcanoes form over particularly hot parts of the mantle, often away from plate boundaries.
Volcanic eruptions release lava, gas, and ash. Ash can cover land, block out the sun, and form pyroclastic flows, which are superheated currents of gas, ash, and rock.
Vocabulary: Pyroclastic flows are one of the most dangerous aspects of volcanic eruptions, capable of traveling at high speeds and destroying everything in their path.