Volcanoes
This simple small volcano, typically basaltic in composition, can erupt scoria and lava flows.
What is a cinder cone?
This magma is formed by the partial melting of mantle rocks.
What is basalt?
In this plate boundary basaltic magmas are the most typically produced.
What are divergent boundaries?
Due to the production of this material, volcanoes are thought to be a hazard to jet engines.
What is ash?
This type of monitoring is typically the most important for predicting the pace of volcanic activity.
What is seismic monitoring?
An impact event (and potential tsunami) is linked with the extinction of these creatures.
What are dinosaurs?
This type of volcano has steep slopes that build up due to alternating lava flow and ash layers.
What is a composite volcano?
This type of melting is important in the formation of magmas supplying mid-ocean ridges and oceanic islands.
What is decompression melting?
These plate boundaries can be formed along either oceanic-oceanic boundaries or continental-oceanic margins.
What are subduction zones?
This may be produced by large-scale basaltic volcanoes and contribute to the warming of Earth's climate system.
What is carbon dioxide?
Observations based on these are also helpful for understanding volcanic activity but are limited in their usefulness due to cloud cover, snow cover, vegetation, etc.
What are satellites?
Comets and asteroids are generally thought to vary depending on how much of these two materials they have.
What is rock versus ice?
This typically forms from repeated eruptions of basaltic lavas and, though large, typically has gently slopes.
What is a shield volcano?
This type of melting is important in subduction zones.
What is wet melting or melting in the presence of fluids?
This is the type of plate tectonic association linked with Dante's Peak.
What are subduction zones?
This gas, upon its release high up in the atmosphere, changes form and serves as a condensation nuclei for making clouds.
What is sulfur dioxide?
These changes in the structure of Earth's crust in a volcanically active region may signify the migration of magmas beneath a volcano.
What is ground deformation? (or inflation?)
This is thought to have occurred when a very large object, maybe the size of Mars or larger, slammed into the early Earth shortly after its formation.
What is the Moon?
This structure is a collapse associated with the evacuation of a magma chamber.
What is a caldera?
This type of lava is typically found in the most explosive volcanoes.
What is an rhyolite?
This is the name for a type of volcanism that is not necessarily associated with plate tectonic boundaries.
What are hot spots? (or what is a mantle plume?)
An eruption of one of these would likely have global consequences.
What is a supervolcano?
Changes in these overall (or their composition), sensed by satellite or direct measurement, may signify an upcoming eruption.
What are gas emissions?
Earth's core is a bit big, the Moon's core is small, the Moon is depleted in these volatile elements and the Moon is large for the size of Earth.
Why do scientists think the Moon formed in a way distinctive from many other planetary satellites?
These shield volcanoes are the largest volcanic structures on Earth and in the Solar system.
What are Mauna Loa and Olympus Mons?
The largest outpourings of magmas on the surface of the planet are generally linked with these geologic features.
What are L.I.P.s?
(Large Igneous Provinces)
This is an example of a both a hot spot and a plate boundary.
What is Iceland?
These large emplacements of volcanic products over a relatively short time span have been synchronously linked with global extinction events.
What are flood basalts?
This collection of events may help volcanologists predict an imminent eruption.
What are earthquake swarms?
Given the devastation witnessed with downed trees over a large area, it is fortunate that this large near-impact event over a hundred years ago did not have massive casualties. Scientists think had it happened over a major metropolitan area the amount of damage would be substantial.
What is Tunguska?