ATOC 185 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Juan De Fuca Plate, Debris Flow, Magma Chamber

• School: McGill University
• Department: Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
• Course: ATOC 185
• Professor: Multiple

Document Summary

Volcano: molten magma rises within the earth and is erupted either quietly (lava) or. Super volcano: yellow stone is an example, it does not erupt often but when it does it erupts greatly. Humans have never witnessed or recorded a super volcano but they did happened in earths history. Pyroclastic: breaking magma creating ash and magma fragments. Amount of gas present in the magma. Silica content: magmas with more silica content and more gas will be more viscous and explosive. Eruptions can change from explosive to lava phase or vice versa. Magma fragments when the strain (high pressure) is very high and quick. Magma flows when there is a small strain (low pressure) and its very slow. Magma with the same composition can either break and erupt violently or erupt slowly and not violently. They tend to erupt and appear along the different faults/ plate boundaries. The most destructive volcanoes occurs along the pacific ring of fire.