subject: What Causes Natural Disasters? Part Two of Four [print this page] Have you ever experienced the horrifying effects of an earthquake, a volcano, tornadoes, or a hurricane? Depending on where you live, it could be a common thing. You may have suffered the losses of a broken family, a tortured home, and a wiped out population. You may have experienced the heart of a storm, getting hit with flying bar stools, getting swept under water, sitting in basements hoping for the best. This is not fun day off of school, it's a disaster. One way that weather specialists keep track of dangerous natural disasters is by understanding why they form.
Here are some of the main causes of a volcano erupting and other random facts about this natural disaster. First of all, volcanoes are vents in the Earths surface in which molten rock, debris, and steam is located About 1,900 volcanoes are still active today and they have been recorded throughout all of history Approximately 90 percent of all volcanoes are located in the Ring of Fire, this is a band of volcanoes which circle around the edges of the Pacific Ocean Most volcanoes occur at plate boundaries, which are areas of huge slabs of rock that meet with the Earths outer shell, or lithosphere Subduction zones, or areas in which plates meet and one is pushed beneath the other are prime locations for volcanoes. What happens is the molten rock rises to the surface, thus forming a volcano Volcanoes often arise in spreading centers, known as rifts, where plates move away from each other, and the earths crust spreads and splits Hot spots deep within the Earth cause intraplate volcanoes. As magma rises and erupts in the form of lava, it seeps through the cracks in the Earths surface which then forms a volcano Magma is the deep molten rock from deep inside Earths crust, an eruption will begin when this rises toward the surface A volcano can erupt in a different combination of ways: an explosively hard pyroclastic material, explosively with fluid lavas (known as lava fountains), effusively with hard pyroclastic flows (which is clouds of ash and gases), and effusively with fluid lava. Although some volcanoes are rumored to be extinct, and some seem to exist only as mountains, any volcano at any time is capable of erupting again Volcanoes ultimately provide our Earth with valuable mineral deposits, fertile souls, and geothermal energies.
