How volcanoes form?
A volcano is a land form(usually a mountain) where molten rock erupts through the surface of the planet. A vent is located at the top of the volcano, it is the opening of the Earth's surface in which volcanic materials come out of. Volcanic rocks are igneous rock solidified near or on the surface of the Earth. Most of the volcanoes are formed when two plates meet each other. When the two plates move apart they cause a gap, and hot molten rock called lava rises up between the gap. This type of volcano occurs on the ocean floor and it is mostly invisible. Underwater volcanoes are formed as the surface of the Earth rips apart since it's denser than the underlying mantle, it creates pressure on the mantle and the surface cracks.
Types of volcanoes:
Shield volcanoes
Shield volcanoes occur mainly at hot spots and they erupt in divergent boundaries.They never erupt explosives instead they ooze lava or magma out. This type of volcano is built slowly and can have multiple vents producing more lava flows. These types of volcanoes are mostly found in Hawaii. Shield volcanoes are formed by hot lava.
Composite volcanoes
Composite volcanoes are also know as statovolcano. Composite volcanoes or statovolcano have both tephra and lava material. Composite volcanoes are composed of alternating layers of strata material created by pyroclastic which is lava flows. It's a cone shaped mountain with layers of cinder, ash, and lava. Composite volcanoes are located at subduction zones which is in the convergent boundaries. These kind of volcanoes are the most dangerous of all three volcanoes shield, cinder cone and composite. Some of the composite volcanoes have vents in the side. Composite volcanoes are considered to be the biggest type of volcano they can reach up to 8,000 feet high. The reason why these volcanoes have very steep sides is that when lava flows for a while the eruption starts to change and it starts to shoot out cinder, ash that lands near the bottom of the volcano.
Cinder cone volcanoes
Cinder cone volcanoes are made of volcanic rock that have been cooled down. Cinder cone volcanoes look like a cone because a material called tephra erupts and forms a cone shaped mountain. Cinder cone volcanoes only erupts ash. Cinder cone volcanoes only has one vent compared to the other volcanoes. These types of volcanoes have very steep sides that are considered to be the simplest volcano. Cinder cone volcanoes barley rise up to 1000 feet high. These types of volcanoes look like they have a bowl for the crater. The width of the this volcano is approximantley 250 km. The height is around 500-650 meters high.
Ring of Fire
The Ring of Fire is where you can find most of the volcanoes in the world. The ring of fire is found in the pacific ocean, the ring of fire occurs because of the tectonic plates. The ring of fire starts from the South American plate, North American plate, Eurasian plate, and all the way to the Indo-Austallian plate.