GG103

Volcanic Structures and Processes

I. Types of volcanoes
A. Rift Volcanoes
1. essentially large cracks from which lava is quietly extruded.
2. Includes mid-ocean ridges and some huge lava plateaus including the Columbia River
Plateau and the Deccan Plateau of India.
3. Mainly non-explosive eruptions from long fissures
B. Central Volcanoes
1. Essential characteristic is a centralized magma feeder system
2. Includes steep-sided volcanoes of convergent margins, and those with gentler slopes like
those in Hawai‘i, Galápagos, and Iceland.
3. Mainly two-types:
a. Composite Volcanoes (or stratovolcanoes)
i. formed from a mixture of lava and volcanic ejecta (tephra)
ii. most volcanoes in convergent margins are composite
iii. eruptions tend to be fairly explosive
iv. typically fairly small volcanoes
v. eruptions usually from close to the summit.
b. Shield volcanoes
i. low angle slopes
ii. dominated by fluid lava flows; explosive eruptions are relatively rare.
iii. eruptions can occur either from near the summit or from flank vents.

II. Structures of Hawaiian Shield Volcanoes

A. essential elements are a summit caldera, radial rift zones and tangential faults
B. eruptions mainly from summit and rift zones
C. Calderas
1. summit collapse structures bounded by arcuate faults
2. very dynamic features, change shape and size over time scales of decades to centuries
3. evidence that calderas overlie relatively shallow magma storage reservoirs
D. Rift Zones
1. usually either two or three separate rift zones on each volcano.
 2. zones of magma intrusion and eruption. Internal structure is a dike complex, formed by
subparallel blade-like intrusions. Magma moves away from the summit region in tabular
bodies called dikes.
3. dike and rift zone orientations reflect stresses inside the volcano.
E. Tangential Faults
1. Fault structures that are more or less tangential to the shape of the shield volcano.
2. mainly form by slumping of the unstable flanks of the volcano. This collapse can be
gradual or catastrophic.

III. Volcanic Products

A. Gases
1. Mainly H2O, with lesser amounts of CO2, SO2 and SO3 and various others.
2. Gases are important because
a. Health concerns
b. critical for understanding origin and evolution of magma, and
c. important effect on eruptive style, e.g. how explosive is an eruption
B. Tephra (pyroclastic ejecta)
1. can be classified by size into ash, lapilli, blocks and bombs
2. different kinds of bombs mainly controlled by magma viscosity
3. consolidated ash deposits are tuffs.
C. Lava
1. molten rock (magma) on the surface
2. can consist of melt (which turns to glass if cooled quickly), minerals and gas bubbles
3. Two main types in Hawai‘i, these are pāhoehoe and ‘a‘ā.
a. pāhoehoe mainly consists of thin flow units; can turn into ‘a‘ā away from vents, but
never the reverse; produced during relatively quiet eruptions
b. ‘a‘ā lava commonly from eruptions with associated high fountaining at the vent.
4. An important parameter controlling lava morphology is viscosity
a. basically a parameter that reflects the resistance to flow. Can be defined as the ratio of
shear stress to rate of strain. Low viscosity materials flow very readily (are very fluid).
b. magma viscosity decreases with increasing temperature and amount of dissolved gases.
It increases with increasing crystal content.
5. Another property of magma, related to viscosity, is yield strength, or amount of applied
stress required to initiate flow. Yield strength also is temperature dependent.
6. Features of lava flows
 a. lava tubes
b. lava channels
c. lava lakes
d. lava trees and tree molds
e. cinder and spatter cones
f. littoral cones
g. lava domes
h. columnar joints

IV. Types of Eruptive Activity

A. Basaltic Fissure Eruptions
1. low relief structures
2. no explosive activity
3. commonly very thick flows, >30 m thick
B. Hawaiian Eruptions
1. mainly fluid magma, with only minor tephra
2. can have fountains at the vent
C. Strombolian Activity
1. typically both tephra and lava flows are produced
2. moderately explosive; bombs are common
3. probably the main type of activity of many composite volcanoes
4. Hawaiian examples include features at Mauna Kea and Haleakalā
D. Vulcanian Activity
1. tephra predominates over lava
2. pyroclastic flows may develop
3. explosive, violent eruptions
4. magma is typically more viscous than in Strombolian eruptions
E. Plinian (Krakatoan) Activity
1. most violent known volcanic activity (?)
2. principal ejecta is pumice
3. eruptions commonly follow long dormant periods.
F. Other eruption types
1. Phreatic eruptions represent steam-driven eruptions, without any new magma involved.
Activity at Kīlauea in 1924 is an example.
2. Phreato-magmatic (Surtseyan) eruptions involve magma that interacts with water, either
ground water or sea water. Diamond Head and activity associated with the 1960 eruption
of Kīlauea at Kapoho are examples.