VOLCANOES AROUND THE WORLD

Welcome to our Social Studies page
concerning interesting tidbits and important notes about volcanoes.
Here we are hoping to provide you with information about volcanoes
and volcanic activity that is fun and factual at the same time.
Enjoy!

- Did you know that in Hawaii
moving lava is also known as "aa" (ah-ah) and also pahoehoe (pa-hoy-hoy). Pahoehoe lava is very
smooth in appearance and wrinkles as it advances while aa has a
very jagged, rough look.
"aa" wave
sweeping over a previous "pahoehoe" layer on Hawaii
- In Northern Ireland there is a
place called the Giant's Causeway where a series of hexagonal
(six-sided) columns made of basalt is found. The local people tell stories
that many years ago the Giant's Causeway is all that is left of a
bridge built by the Irish giant Finn MacCoul from Ireland to
Scotland. Today scientists have explained this natural phenomena
as the unique result of magma cooling in this shape after it was
pushed to the surface. But the story is certainly a lot more fun ,
don't you think.
The Causeway proper is a mass
of basalt columns packed tightly together. The
tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff
foot and disappear under the sea. Altogether there are 40,000 of
these stone columns, mostly hexagonal but some with four, five,
seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 40 feet high, and the
solidified lava in the cliffs is 90 feet thick in
places.

- Did you know that some of our
most beautiful sunsets are a result of volcanic eruptions?! That's right. Whenever a volcano
erupts it pushes up to several tonnes of ash, dust and debris into the air. When
this material comes into contact with the wind and circulating air
currents it is pushed around the atmosphere. When the sunlight
manages to filter through this assortment of erupted stuff it is
often altered to appear orange, red, yellow and other assorted
bright colours providing some of the prettiest sights on
Earth.
- Volcanoes have been known to
create not just fiery eruptions but also mudflows, Nuee
ardente,debris
avalanches, and
lava showers that help alter the landscape.
After Mt. St. Helen's blew in 1980 it was said that the side of
the mountain and the valley below looked like the face of the
Moon.
- It is generally thought that
volcanic eruptions cause nothing but destruction and harm
for people, but volcanic debris can actually help turn regular
soil into extremely fertile land for growing crops.
- In 1816, an extremely cold
spring and summer in north-eastern Canada and the United States
caused a series of crop failures. There was also a famine period
in England, Germany and France. Scientists have traced the cold
weather to the huge amount of volcanic debris ejected by the
eruption of the volcano Tambora in Indonesia the year before. Over
30000 metres of tephra was thrown into the atmosphere and the
winds spread it around the globe. The effects were so severe in
New England in particular that 1816 came to be known as the "year
without a summer".
- Sometimes volcanic activity
can create entirely new land. In 1963 a volcanic eruption and
surge of magma from an ocean floor site resulted in
the fairly sudden appearance and formation of the new island of
Surtsey. This took place south of Iceland were there had just been
water before. Surtsey is the youngest island on Earth.
Surtsey
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