How magma reaches Earth’s surface

•Lava begins as magma in the mantle.

•Magma forms in the asthenosphere, which lies beneath the lithosphere.
•Because liquid magma is less dense than the surrounding solid material, magma flows
upward into any cracks in the rock above.
•Magma rises until it reaches the surface, or until it becomes trapped beneath layers of
rock.
A volcano Erupts
•The dissolved gases trapped in magma are under tremendous pressure.
•As magma rises toward the surface, the pressure decreases. The dissolved gases begin to
separate out, forming bubbles.
•A volcano erupts when an opening develops in weak rock on the surface.
•During a volcanic eruption, the gases dissolved in magma rush out, carrying the magma
with them.
•Once magma reaches the surface and becomes lava, the gases bubble out.
Inside a Volcano
•All volcanoes have a pocket of magma beneath the surface and one or more cracks
through which the magma forces its way.
•Beneath a volcano, magma collects in a pocket called a magma chamber.
•The magma moves through a pipe, a long tube in the ground that connects the magma
chamber to Earth’s surface.
•Molten rock and gas leave the volcano through an opening called a vent.
•Often there is one central vent at the top of a volcano, however, many volcanoes also
have other bents that open on the volcano’s sides.
•A lava flow is the area covered by lava as it pours out of a vent.
•A crater is a bowl-shaped area that may form at the top of a volcano around the volcano's
central vent.

Characteristics of Magma
•The force of a volcanic eruption depends partly on the amount of gas dissolved in the
magma.
•Also, how thick or thin the magma is, its temperature, and its silica content are also
important factors.
•Some types of magma are thick and flow very slowly. Other types of magma are fluid
and flow almost as easily as water.
•Magma’s temperature partly determines whether it is thick or fluid. The hotter the
magma, the more fluid it is.
•The amount of silica in magma also helps to determine how easily the magma flows.
•Silica, which is a material that is formed from the elements oxygen and silicon, is one of
the most abundant materials in Earth's crust and mantle.
•The more silica magma contains, the thicker it is.
•Magma that is high in silica produces light-colored lava that is too sticky to flow very
far.
•When this type of lava cools, it forms the rock rhyolite, which has the same composition
as granite.
•Magma that is low in silica flows readily and produces dark-colored lava.
•When this kind of lava cools, rocks such as basalt are formed.

Types of Volcanic Eruptions

•A volcano’s magma influences how the volcano erupts.
•The silica content of magma helps to determine whether the volcanic eruption is quiet or
explosive.
Quiet Eruptions
•A volcano erupts quietly if its magma flows easily.
•The gas dissolved in the magma bubbles out gently.
•Thin, runny lava oozes quietly from the vent.
•The islands of Hawaii and Iceland were formed from quiet eruptions.
•Quiet eruptions produce two different types of lava: pahoehoe and aa.
•Pahoehoe is fast-moving, hot lava.
•The surface of a lava flow formed from pahoehoe looks like a solid mass of wrinkles,
billows, and ropelike coils.
•Lava that is cooler and slower-moving is called aa.
•When aa hardens, it forms a rough surface consisting of jagged lava chunks.

Explosive Eruptions
•If its magma is thick and sticky, a volcano erupts explosively.
•Its slowly builds up in the volcano’s pipe, plugging it like a cork in a bottle,
•Dissolved gases cannot escape from the thick magma. The trapped gases build up
pressure until they explode.

•The explosion breaks the lava into fragments that quickly cools and harden into pieces
of different sizes.
•The smallest pieces are volcanic ash-fine, rocky particles.
•Cinders are pebble-sized particles.
•Larger pieces, called bombs may range from the size of a baseball to the size of a car.
•A pyroclastic flow occurs when an explosive eruption hurls out ash, cinders, and bombs
as well as gases.

Stages of a Volcano
•The activity of a volcano may last from less than a decade to more than 10 million years.
Most long-lived volcanoes, however, do not erupt continuously.
•Geologists often describe volcanoes with terms usually reserved for living things, such
as sleeping, awakening, alive or dead.
•An active, or live, volcano is one that is erupting or has shown sign that it may erupt in
the near future.
•A dormant, or sleeping, volcano is like a sleeping bear.
•An extinct, or dead, volcano is unlikely to erupt again.
Other types of volcanic activity
•Hot springs and geysers are two examples of volcanic activity that do not involve the
eruption of lava.
•A hot spring forms when groundwater heated by a nearby body of magma rises to the
surface and collects in a natural pool.
•Water from hot springs may contain dissolved gases and other substances from deep
within Earth.
•A geyser is a fountain of water and steam that erupts from the ground.

Geothermal Energy
•In volcanic areas, water heated by magma can provide a clean, reliable energy source
called geothermal energy.
•It can be used as the source of heat and electricity.