What volcanoes do for mother Earth (and it's residants!)

Have you ever wondered about volcanoes!? Have you ever thought, why does the earth spew lava from it’s core in the first place? Or, what really is a volcano?

Well, those questions will be answered along with a lot more in this article:All (the good and the bad) about volcanoes

(mount Fuji in japan. fact: mount Fuji is considered an active volcano.) ((picture from pixabay.))

There is so much to learn about volcanoes! They do so much for the earth! But first, you should know what a volcano is before you learn more about them!

What is a volcano exactly?

A volcano is a mountain that occurs on hot spots in the earth’s mantles. They usually occur where there are constructive and destructive plates, (which are plates that crunch together or pull apart.) allows magma and gas to escape the earth’s inner core. Magma goes through what is called the magma chamber (which is under the volcano and inside the volcano.) when magma reaches the earth's surface, it is called lava.

Lava exits the volcano along all types of gasses like water vapor and carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide is great for trees!). Lava can also spew out threw the side of a volcano, in places where there is softer rock. When lava flows somewhere through the side of a volcano and not through the main vent they are called secondary vents.

Now that you know what they are, now we can learn what volcanoes do!

  What do volcanoes do for the Earth?

Volcanoes are often given the scary reputation of spewing hot 1,200 Celsius (2,000 degrees fahrenheit) lava that can burn entire cities and ash that kills people who inhale it. That may be true, but did you know that…

     Volcanoes create islands!

When an underwater volcano* (*more on that later) rises from the ocean, it takes some land with it, creating an island supported by the volcano!

 Volcanoes cool down the earth!

You may be thinking, how does a volcano cool down the earth!? It spews out hot lava for pete’s sake! The first time I heard that I also didn’t get it, until I researched volcanoes. It turns out that within the earth is magma, which is rock that has heated up to the point where it has melted, (lava before it reaches the surface), and when a volcano erupts, it releases the magma/now lava that was in the earth's core thereby cooling down the earth by releasing some hot magma/lava that was within it.

 Volcanoes care for mother nature!

While volcanoes do tend to destroy land while erupting, what volcanoes leave is absolutely amazing!

When a volcano violently erupts it releases gas first, and besides releasing water vapor and hydrogen fluoride, they also release carbon dioxide, which is great for trees!They also promote rich soil, and there are tons of minerals in the ash and lava that a volcano releases. Which makes great farmland for humans.

Volcanos add new land to continents

If volcanoes to form new islands, then of course they would be able to add to continents! When lava flows out of a volcano near the ocean, the lava cools into rock and forms land. I have an example.

On May 3, 2018 Hawaii's volcano Kilauea caused lots of damage to neighborhoods and streets with it’s lava flow. BUT , it did create a new coastline near the water when it cooled.

(picture of the land kilauea created with cooled molten rock. I got the picture from a news video on youtube.)

That knowledge may be mind-blowing, but did you know a volcano could collapse on itself!?

Volcanoes create craters!

When a volcanic eruption can be so massive, the volcano empties all the magma from the chamber under it and collapse on itself and creates a crater. Sometimes the crater fills with water and becomes a geothermal body of water. The country/island of iceland has a lot of these. (although in Iceland some are natural, some not.)
Volcanos also create geysers and hot springs.

The categorization of all volcanoes in general:

ACTIVE: active volcano is a volcano that is erupting or has erupted recently and may erupt again

DORMANT: a dormant volcano is a volcano that hasn’t erupted in a long time, but is expected to erupt again.

EXTINCT: extinct volcanoes are volcanoes that are never going to erupt again.

And those were some cool facts about volcanos! I hope you learned a thing or two from this article. Upvote and tell friends if you thought this article was good!

Coment if you’ve ever seen a volcano or even lived by one! If so, were they dormant, planned to explode again or are they active and have just erupted!? Or are they extinct!?

This is an entry for the freestyln’ contest.