Two types of Plate boundaries are often associated with volcanic eruptions: Plates rip apart at a divergent plate boundary, causing volcanic activity and shallow earthquakes; and At a convergent plate boundary, one plate dives or “subducts” beneath the other, resulting in a variety of earthquakes and a line of volcanoes on the overriding plate.
Full Answer
Two types of Plate boundaries are often associated with volcanic eruptions: Plates rip apart at a divergent plate boundary, causing volcanic activity and shallow earthquakes; and
Tectonic activity such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the formation of mountain ranges commonly occurs along the boundaries of the moving plates. Two types of Plate boundaries are often associated with volcanic eruptions: Plates rip apart at a divergent plate boundary, causing volcanic activity and shallow earthquakes; and
Another feature associated with volcanic activity is a hotspot, where a rising plume of hot mantle can lead to volcano formation at the surface. As the tectonic plate moves above a hotspot, a line of volcanoes may form on top of the plate.
The two types of plate boundaries that are most likely to produce volcanic activity are divergent plate boundaries and convergent plate boundaries.
Recall that there are three types of plate boundaries: convergent, divergent, and transform. Volcanism occurs at convergent boundaries (subduction zones) and at divergent boundaries (mid-ocean ridges, continental rifts), but not commonly at transform boundaries.
Destructive, or convergent, plate boundaries are where the tectonic plates are moving towards each other. Volcanoes form here in two settings where either oceanic plate descends below another oceanic plate or an oceanic plate descends below a continental plate.
On land, volcanoes form when one tectonic plate moves under another. Usually a thin, heavy oceanic plate subducts, or moves under, a thicker continental plate. When this happens, the ocean plate sinks into the mantle.
Rift volcanoes. Rift volcanoes form when magma rises into the gap between diverging plates. They thus occur at or near actual plate boundaries.
Volcanoes at convergent plate boundaries are found all along the Pacific Ocean basin, primarily at the edges of the Pacific, Cocos, and Nazca plates. Trenches mark subduction zones. The Cascades are a chain of volcanoes at a convergent boundary where an oceanic plate is subducting beneath a continental plate.
As the sinking plate moves deeper into the mantle, fluids are released from the rock causing the overlying mantle to partially melt. The new magma (molten rock) rises and may erupt violently to form volcanoes, often building arcs of islands along the convergent boundary.
Convergent boundaries know as subduction zones create volcanos by forcing a plate under another plate melting the plate and creating the pressure that results in a volcano.
Volcanism occurs because of Earth's internal heat, and is associated with tectonic processes and a part of the rock cycle. Volcanic eruptions occur when molten lava reaches the surface of the Earth. When lava cools at the surface it is called extrusive igneous rock. Volcanism can both increase and decrease temperature.