Plate Tectonics and Volcanoes

Hey guys today I am going to tell you about plate tectonics and volcanoes. The idea to learn more about this came because at school we covered the topic of natural disasters.

The most important thing you need to know about tectonic plates is how they move; the magma that is in contact with the core heats up causing it to be less dense and rise and then it cools down and goes back down. Think of it like a conveyor belt. This phenomenon is called convection.

Now let's move on to volcanoes. A volcano is essentially an opening, or vent, in the Earth's crust through which magma, seeps out to the surface which makes a mountain as the magma solidifies. The type of volcano I will talk about today is called a subdutcion volcano which is basically when one plate slips under another turning into magma causing pressure to acumulate and magma to seep through the cracks.

But happens when the magma can just seep throughthe cracks well then pressure builds up and up and up until it all blows up at once well that is what a super volcano. A very good example of that is the Yellowstone caldera in the U.S or lake Taupo in New Zealand. Now I will show you a video  of what the Yellowstone would look like if it exploded because it was recrated in a movie called 2012.

The Yellowstone caldera is fascinating. If you want to learn more about the insanely large magma plume that feeds it check out this article by National Geographic.

I have also been learning about the three types of rocks: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. The rocks formed by volcanoes are igneous rocks. Depending on how they much time they take to cool they form more or less crystals. The more crystals the harder (such as granite) and viceversa (such as obsidian). To learn more about crystals, check out this past article in my blog.