Blog # 53 I'm going with "volcano"

I wanted to use the words "sex" or "love".  Lets face it though, I could go on for hours about those things, especially given the nature of my previous "loves" and relationships.   
 
Volcano's are much simpler.  It's all about definition here to me.  This is intriguing, I promise. 

Volcano's are holes in the earths crust that spew magma, which is actually called lava once it gets above the surface. 
Volcano's are common along plate boundaries under the earths crust.  If you want to know more specifics, I suggest you see me, or take Earth Science 100,105,121, or 122. 

There are several types of active Volcano's.  I'm going to discuss a few of the important ones.

Shield volcano's are typically very large in terms of total area, but aren't necessarily all that tall.  These are the types of volcano's that can often be found in Hawaii.  I highly suggest you check out the national parks there.  These are the kinds of volcano's that shoot lava out.  There is very little in terms of ash flow.

Cone volcano's are typically smaller, cone shaped volcano's.  They usually only erupt once.  They spit out a mix of lava, gasses, and ash, but not much of it.  Ash is more deadly than lava.  Sunset crater in Arizona is an example.

My personal favorites are Stratovolcano's (Composite Volcano's).  These are the big ones.  They spit out a little bit of lava, but more gas, and tons of ash !  The ash is hot and destroys just about anything it touches, including lungs.  Mt. St. Helen's in Washington is a kind of Composite Volcano (though some debate the exact classification).   Mt. Tambora in Indonesia erupted massively in 1815.  This created a massive ash cloud that hovered around the earth for a few years.  It partially blacked out the sun.  As a result, there were no true summers in 1815 or 1816.  It snowed in June as far south as Kentucky.  I can't tell you how detrimental this would be to our crop supplies if this happened today.   World hunger galore. 

Yellowstone national park is a caldera (volcanic depression).  It's swelling because it's getting closer to erupting.  Yellowstone itself is an extremely large volcano.  It (and other volcano's) erupt with regular frequency.  Experts say Yellowstone goes off every 600,000 years or so.  It's been an estimated 650,000 years since it last erupted.  If it goes off again, were in deep shit. 

By the way, you only live once kids.  Enjoy life to the fullest.