Volcanoes Facts for Kids
Explosive facts about volcanoes and geology
Erta Ale in the Afar region of Ethiopia has one of the world's oldest documented lava lakes, active since at least 1906. Located in one of the hottest and most remote places on Earth, it sits below sea level in the Danakil Depression.
NASA and other space agencies use satellites to monitor volcanoes from space. Satellites can detect changes in ground temperature, measure rising gas emissions, and even track tiny swellings in the earth that signal rising magma before any eruption.
When an oceanic tectonic plate subducts (sinks) under another plate, a curved chain of volcanic islands called an island arc forms above it. Japan, the Philippines, and the Caribbean islands are all examples of island arcs.
How fast lava flows depends on how thick (viscous) it is. Thin, runny basalt lava can flow as fast as 35 miles per hour on steep slopes, while thick rhyolite lava may ooze just a few feet per day.
When Mount PelΓ©e on the Caribbean island of Martinique erupted in 1902, a pyroclastic surge wiped out the city of Saint-Pierre in minutes, killing approximately 30,000 people. Only two residents survived β one of them was a prisoner protected inside a thick-walled cell.
Volcano tourism is a fast-growing industry around the world. Millions of people visit active volcanic sites each year, from lava flows in Hawaii to crater hikes in Iceland and Mount Bromo in Indonesia.
Mount Vesuvius near Naples has erupted more than 50 times since the famous eruption that buried Pompeii in 79 AD. Its most recent eruption was in 1944, during World War II, which also damaged Allied aircraft.
Cinder cones are the smallest and most common type of volcano. They form quickly when gas-rich lava is blasted into the air, cools into cinders, and piles up around a single vent β usually taking just a few months to years to form.
Volcanic activity concentrates rare earth elements β critical materials used in smartphones, electric cars, and wind turbines β in accessible ore deposits. Many of the world's richest rare earth mines sit in ancient volcanic regions.
Around 1600 BC, the volcanic island of Thera (modern-day Santorini) exploded in a cataclysmic eruption. Many historians believe the resulting tsunamis and ash fallout triggered the collapse of the sophisticated Minoan civilization on nearby Crete.