Volcanoes

1. Volcanoes Forces That Build and Destroy The Earth By: Madison

2. Sniff, sniff. I smell smoke. Hm. Uh, oh. Volcano!!!!!!!!!!!! “Sniff, sniff. Do you smell that? It smells like………smoke. Oh, no! Help! Volcano!” Ok, ok Reader. Calm down. Its just a volcano…………that’s erupting. Anyway. What? You say you don’t know anything about these massive, huge, incredibly large, humongous, ridiculously gigantic…….. Ok, sorry. But you say you don’t know anything about volcanoes? ( That explains why your standing next to an erupting volcano)! “Hey!” Sorry, but it’s the truth! Ug! Back to what I was talking about before. Well then! I’ll just have to tell you about them now, wont I? A volcano is an opening in Earth’s crust where molten rock, ash, and gases from below ground erupt onto Earth’s surface, into the atmosphere. Every volcano except calderas have a bowl-shaped top called a crater, you know, where lava shoots out of during an eruption. Every volcano also has a magma chamber where all the magma is held and builds before an eruption down deep inside the core of the volcano, where the temperatures reach thousands of degrees. And they all have side side vents, where lava flows out of the side of the volcano. That’s what all volcanoes have. There are many different types of volcanoes. Want me to name them all? Ok! The types of volcanoes are: shield volcanoes, composite volcanoes, cinder cone volcanoes, Rhyolite Caldera complexes, and strato volcanoes. Shield volcanoes are very big and they slope. They also erupt lava. But composite and strato volcanoes are steep and they are the

3. Sniff, sniff. I smell smoke. Hm. Uh, oh. Volcano!!!!!!!!!!!! (continued) majority of the volcanoes in the world. Cinder cones are shaped like cones ( as you can well imagine) and Rhyolite caldera complexes are the most explosive. Speaking of volcanoes in the world, have you ever heard of the Mount St. Helens eruption? Well, if you haven’t, then guess what I’m going to tell you about next! Mount. St. Helens erupted in 1980 way back when in Washington D.C. It happened in the Cascade mountains. The eruption wasn’t like any other eruption at all. No! Instead of lava, out spewed ash and gases! Terrifying! It was SO powerful that the eruption felled millions of trees, devastating the land. It wasn’t like the eruption was too surprising that people couldn’t bear it. No. People knew about it. They saw the magma chamber bulge with magma. They saw the magma chamber expand. Before the eruption, mini explosions occurred. I guess it was just blowing off steam! Ha! Ha! After the eruption, ash and gases filled people’s lungs and, unfortunately, killed many of them. That’s why I don’t like volcanoes, but they are also constructive. But, here comes another unfortunate thing:

4. Sniff, sniff. I smell smoke. Hm. Uh, oh. Volcano!!!!!!!!!!!! (continued) I have to tell you about that later. Now, back to regular talk about volcanoes. Oh, wait! I have nothing else to tell you about volcanoes, but read on to learn the facts on lava! “Now can you save me now?” Yea…sure….. “Hey where’d you go?” Tarzan! (I’m swinging on a vine!) Gottcha! “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

5. A Red-hot River of Hotness! “Phew! Thanks for saving my (almost burnt) skin back there! It really meant a lot to me…..hey! Why is it so hot? I mean really, really hot! Ow! Ow! My feet are burning! Hey! What’s that red-ish stuff coming from that mountain over there……….. It kinda looks like…..like…..LAVA! Help, Tarzan! Help!” Alright! You got me up! I was having a spa at “Spa and Boutiques….. WHY ARE YOU STANDING NEAR A VOLCANO THAT IS ERUPTING?!!!!!!!! Ok, ok. Calm down. Alright. That’s right. Your dumbfounded about volcanoes. Ok. You need to learn a lot more about volcanoes! Well then!

6. A Red-hot River of Hotness! (continued) “ But you need to save me first!” No, I’ll just tell you about lava first! What do you think about when your introduced into the topic of lava? Do you think that its icy cold and only is in the polar regions? Well then, your very wrong! Lava is boiling hot liquid that comes out of the crater of a volcano. Lava can be MUCH hotter than boiling water. 7 to 10x more hot than boiling water! HOT, right? And it will burn you. Bad. There is two types of lava. One is Aa (ah-ah). Aa is very sticky and very slow.

7. A Red-hot River of Hotness! (continued) “ But you need to save me first!” No, I’ll just tell you about lava first! What do you think about when your introduced into the topic of lava? Do you think that its icy cold and only is in the polar regions? Well then, your very wrong! Lava is boiling hot liquid that comes out of the crater of a volcano. Lava can be MUCH hotter than boiling water. 7 to 10x more hot than boiling water! HOT, right? And it will burn you. Bad. There is two types of lava. One is Aa (ah-ah). Aa is very sticky and very slow. Most humans and animals can escape it. The other type of lava is pahoehoe (pa-hoey-hoey). Pahoehoe is very fluid and when it slides down a volcano, its very fast. Humans and animals can not escape it. Those were the two types of lava. Anyway, in general, lava is very fiery! Well, I haven’t told you what lava is, actually. Lava is a solution of silacate minerals. If lava cools rapidly, few crystals will form. And normal cooling will cause smooth, folded sheets of rock to appear.

8. A Red-hot River of Hotness! (continued) And, sticky lava created jagged sheets of rocks. When lava is above ground, it is called lava. And when its underground, its called magma. Confusing a little bit, but that’s ok! Anyway, I have way more to tell you, just not about lava! So, ask me more and I will tell you more! “Now can you save me?” No, you can run. Its Aa lava! “What?........... Tarzan? Tarzan? HELP!” ( He’s running!)

9. Mt. St. Devastation! “ *pant!* *pant!*. Even though you didn’t save me on your vine like last time, you still gave me the advice to run. So, I’m thankful!” Well, I had to tell you about volcanoes! You were dumfounded! And, you would have die……. Uh, never mind! Anyway, lets teach you about about volcanic eruptions! But first things first! *SNAP!* There! A volcanic eruption! So now I can tell you about volcanoes (my favorite subject) and then save you, but just barely! So lets get started! Volcanoes erupt when two or more tectonic plates hit each other head on or when one slides underneath another too fast. That also causes earthquakes, but that’s a different matter. Now, when two plates collide, the volcanoes are the most violent, with violent eruptions and viscous lava. After the tectonic plates do some sort of collision, pressure

10. Mt. St. Devastation! (continued) builds up in the magma chamber. Soon after, so much pressure pushes the magma up and through the crater of a volcano. Complicated, huh? There is lots of effects of a volcanic eruption. Hm… let me see here………Ah, yes! I remember now! The effects of a volcanic eruption are: lava flows, ash, pyroclastic flows, debris flows, and thepiras. A lava flow is when lava flows down the side of a volcano. They travel sow and don’t get very far, so they only cause minimal damage, if not, none. Ash, from a volcanic eruption can cover large areas, and can get into people’s lungs and mess up machinery. Because of that, they can be deadly. Pyroclastic flows are very hot gas and pieces of very hot rock. They are very fast, reaching up to 200 meters per second. These are also deadly. Debris flows form when a part of a volcano collapses

11. Mt. St. Devastation!(continued) and flows downhill. They do massive destruction. Tephira is pieces of very hot rock that land on the ground. They bury things, and make roofs collapse , and kill crops, and cause breathing problems. They cause large damage. Anyway, back to what happens when a volcano erupts. When volcanoes erupt really hard, sometimes it can make a hole. Some volcanoes erupt rarely, occasionally, or continually. That’s when volcanoes erupt. Well, I finished. Now I have to save you on horseback, just to keep it random! “What?.....” Yee-haw! “Maybe you should delete that!” Oh yeah! *SNAP!*

12. How does a volcano build a mountain? Well, I saved you yet again. But, I have to save you 1 more time because we have one more topic to cover! Huh! Huh! (breathing hard). Anyway, the next topic I will tell you about is how volcanoes build mountains. So, lets go on an adventure to see how volcanoes form mountains! Well, the first thing to tell you is that mountains are built by 4 things. Want me to tell you them? Well, then! I guess I don’t have a choice! Volcanoes build mountains when they erupt. All the debris that is left behind stays at a certain place. After a lot more eruptions, the debris piles up onto each other and creates a mountain! Just like that! I mean, there’s really nothing to it, building a mountain. I don’t mean that you coulda mountain! I mean, its humanly impossible! Now, don’t give me that speech about how everything and anything is possible because in the word, impossible there’s the word possible. There’s things in the world that are definitely impossible, and do not debate with me because I will always beat you in a stare down! Just kidding! But seriously, don’t give me the speech. Anyway, there’s really nothing to tell you about how volcanoes build a mountain, so I have to end now, but

13. How does a volcano build a mountain? read on to find out about other changes volcanoes make to the surface of the earth!

14. Changes are everywhere! You, know I was lying about having 1 more topic. We actually have 1 more topic to cover now so back then, we actually had 2 topics to cover. I’m just going to tell you what the topic is this time, ‘cause I’m tired! Maybe I’ll recover next topic! Volcanic eruptions burn everything in its path. It is very hard to recover things that have been scorched by lava, but most of the time, you cant! That’s why volcanoes are so dangerous, because they burn things! Volcanoes also help because they let light in to the different plants that haven’t got light for years! That’s helpful now, isn’t it? Well, I’m telling you too much about the next topic, which is are volcanoes destructive or constructive. So you better read the last topic to learn about how volcanoes are destructive and constructive!

15. Constructive, but very destructive! You know, I cant think of another solution to saving you…..wait! I got it! You are swimming ..*SNAP!*…… in the ocean…*SNAP!..... And then a volcano on an island erupts!.....*SNAP!* “Hurry up, then!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” When a volcano erupts, the lava burns everything in its path. (You should kinda already know this!) And on top of that, there’ sometimes lava explosions that devastate! Also the fire and ash cause breathing problems. Also there’s mudslides and floods. Plus, volcanoes form the ground because after a caldera erupts, some space is left, and it breaks up and settles. After a while, a lake or pond or some sort of body of water forms. Cool, huh? Volcanoes also can be constructive to, because when they burn all †he forests that they do, all the new trees get to have sunlight to grow! Nice, huh?

16. Constructive, bur very destructive (continued) Well, I told you A LOT, I MEAN A LOT of things about volcanoes, so I have to (sadly) move on and travel to somebody else that is like you an hour ago, you know dumbfounded, stupid, weird, you get the point. Just kidding! But I have to move on to somebody else to help them, too. So long, old pal! “ *Sob, Sob!* Goodbye! Well, he’s gone, but I will always remember him………. hey! What’s this? *unfold, unfold* Hey! Its his address! Hey! So he’s not a genie after all! He’s…he’s…… Mr. Lava, my environmental professor at Boght Hill Elementary! (also from down the road!) Oh! That’s why I was so suspicious about why I was learning about volcanoes form him in school and here with that genie, or otherwise known as my professor! That’s why he was tired when we stumbled upon the second to last question! Because he’s 60! But, how could he make those things appear out of thin air?... Oh! Now I remember! It went black every time he did it! He must’ve put a blind fold on me and use common objects to make it feel like it was actually real!

17. Constructive, but very destructive (continued) And he got to me so fast that time since he lives down the road and he must have been walking by! Now I get it! Well, I will just have to bring this up on Monday! In the meantime, I will continue the fascinating research on volcanoes and I hope you do to! You never know, I might end up as a volcanologist some day and meet another “genie”!

18. Glossary Constructive- something that constructs things Destructive- something that destroys things Lava explosions- when a fountain of lava explodes Volcanologist- a person who studies volcanoes