volcanism: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	volcanic activity • vulcanism

Photos and Videos

Cross-sectional diagram showing three tectonic plates at ocean ridges, transform faults, and a subduction zone. The image illustrates rising magma forming rift and subduction volcanoes, convection currents in the mantle, and features such as ocean trenches, extinct and hot-spot volcanoes, and the movement of plates above a molten core and low-velocity mantle layer.

Soufrière Hills, Montserrat

Cerro Negro volcano

Kilauea volcano

A child sits on a water buffalo in a rice field with Mayon Volcano rising in the background in Albay province, southern Luzon, Philippines.

Momotombo Volcano and Momotombito Island, Nicaragua

Magma streaming down a volcano.

View original footage of Paricutín's nine-year volcanic eruption and the devastation experienced by surrounding communities

Learn about the volcanic collapse of Mount Mazama and Crater Lake caldera formation in Cascade Range

Discover the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, buried in volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted

Learn how basaltic rock composing the Columbia Plateau was once lava from a series of volcanic fissure eruptions

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Topics

volcano volcanic eruption plume intraplate volcanism subglacial volcanism degassing magma How was Devils Tower formed?stratovolcano Today in History—April 14: The Volcanic Eruption That Grounded a Continent plate tectonics earthquake seafloor spreading diastrophism seismicity supercontinent continental drift continent How are mountains formed?How do earthquakes occur?

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Key People

Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

German explorer and naturalist

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Leopold, Baron von Buch

German geologist

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Nikolay Aleksandrovich Kozyrev

Russian astronomer

Scrope, George Julius Poulett

George Julius Poulett Scrope

British geologist