The name volcano comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire! A volcano is formed when hot molten rock, ash and gases escape from an opening in the Earth's surface. The molten rock and ash solidify as they cool, forming the distinctive volcano shape shown here.
volcano (n.) 1610s, from Italian vulcano "burning mountain," from Latin Vulcanus "Vulcan," Roman god of fire, also "fire, flames, volcano" (see Vulcan). The name was first applied to Mt. Etna by the Romans, who believed it was the forge of Vulcan. Earlier form in English was volcan (1570s), from French.
A volcano is an opening in the earth's crust through which lava, volcanic ash, and gases escape. Volcanic eruptions are partly driven by pressure from dissolved gas, much as escaping gases force the cork out of a bottle of champagne.
Pliny's eyewitness account makes Vesuvius possibly the first formally documented volcanic eruption in history.
1610sThe actual word 'volcano' wasn't invented until the 1610s, with the word derived from “Vulcan,” the Roman God of Fire. Given the same attributes of the Greek Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmiths, Vulcan's worship was very ancient.
How do volcanoes form? The majority of volcanoes in the world form along the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates—massive expanses of our planet's lithosphere that continually shift, bumping into one another. When tectonic plates collide, one often plunges deep below the other in what's known as a subduction zone.
Volcanoes are vents, or openings in Earth's crust, that release ash, gases and steam, and hot liquid rock called lava. When the lava cools and hardens, it forms into the cone-shaped mountain we think of as a volcano.
Sixty percent of all active volcanoes occur at the boundaries between tectonic plates. Most volcanoes are found along a belt, called the “Ring of Fire” that encircles the Pacific Ocean. Some volcanoes, like those that form the Hawaiian Islands, occur in the interior of plates at areas called “hot spots.”
At constructive plate boundaries, the tectonic plates are moving away from one another. The Earth's crust is pulled apart to create a new pathway for rising hot magma to flow on to the surface. Volcanoes can sometimes form in these setting; one example is Iceland.
The oldest volcano in the chain is the inactive volcano Meiji, which is 85 million years old. So to answer your original question, volcanoes have been erupting on Earth for at least the last 4 billion years and were undoubtedly more active in the distant past than they are today.
1,350There are about 1,350 potentially active volcanoes worldwide, aside from the continuous belts of volcanoes on the ocean floor at spreading centers like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. About 500 of those 1,350 volcanoes have erupted in historical time.
Alasdair Baverstock Mexico is home to the world's youngest volcano. In the past, its eruptions have scared and displaced the surrounding indigenous communities. Now, instead of driving people out, it's drawing them in from all over the world.
From Italian vulcano and French volcan, from Latin Vulcanus (“Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking”).
The word 'volcano' comes from the island 'Vulcano', which is a volcanic island in Italy. Vulcano, Italy. The island actually gets its name from the Roman God of fire – Vulcan. Roman mythology says that Vulcan lived in a volcano.
What is another word for volcano?mountainmountridgealppeakeminencehumpprominenceprecipiceelevation85 more rows
Intro. (Image credit: Jesse Allen) ... Sangay, Ecuador - 94 years. (Image credit: Ecuador Ministry of Tourism) ... Santa María, Guatemala - 101 years. (Image credit: dreamstime) ... Stromboli, Italy - 108 years. (Image credit: stock.xchng) ... Mount Etna, Italy - 109 years. ... Mount Yasur, Vanautu - 111 years.
The word "volcano" comes from the little island of Vulcano (with a U) in the Mediterranean Sea off Sicily. Centuries ago, the people living in this area believed that Vulcano (with a U) was the chimney of the forge of Vulcan -- the blacksmith of the Roman gods.
Volcano, vent in the crust of Earth or another planet or satellite, from which issue eruptions of molten rock, hot rock fragments, and hot gases. A
In 1943 a cinder cone started growing on a farm near the village of Parícutin in Mexico. Explosive eruptions caused by gas rapidly expanding and escaping from molten lava formed cinders that fell back around the vent, building up the cone to a height of 1,200 feet. The last explosive eruption left a funnel-shaped crater at the top of the cone. After the excess gases had largely dissipated, the molten rock quietly poured out on the surrounding surface of the cone and moved downslope as lava flows. This order of events--eruption, formation of cone and crater, lava flow--is a common sequence in the formation of cinder cones.
Explosive eruptions these are the most dangerous because magma is violently ejected from the volcano often tearing the vent apart at the surface. This explosive release energy also ejects gas, ash, rocks, pumice, lava, steam, or a combination of expelled material. The ejecta is referred to as pyroclasts. The solid material vented from a volcano is transported either as a pyroclastic flow, pyroclastic surge, or pyroclastic fall.
Cinder cones are the simplest type of volcano. They are built from particles and blobs of congealed lava ejected from a single vent. As the gas-charged lava is blown violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as cinders around the vent to form a circular or oval cone. Most cinder cones have a bowl-shaped crater at the summit and rarely rise more than a thousand feet or so above their surroundings. Cinder cones are numero
A shield volcano doesn't build upward like a stratovolcano, and it isn’t a lumpy composite volcano. It simply spreads.
Volcanoes with both no sign of activity *and* no eruptive episodes at all for over 10 thousand years are generally considered “extinct”.