We have all seen pictures like this from time to time.........
Perhaps you live in a country where there are volcanoes.
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about volcanoes.
What are volcanoes?
A volcano is a mountain or hill with an opening through which steam, gasses and lava from the centre of the Earth can escape into the air.
What is lava?
Lava is a red-hot rock which comes to the Earth’s surface through the volcano. It has a temperature of about 1,000˚C ten times hotter than boiling water! Lava can move as fast as 55kph.... faster than most animals can runs.
How many volcanoes are there in the world?There are about 850 active volcanoes in the world. About sixty percents are in an area called the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean. The largest active volcano is Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii.
What’s the difference between ‘active’ and ‘extinct volcanoes?
An active volcano can erupt at any time. Extinct volcanoes thathave stopped erupting.
What happen when they erupt?
A volcano erupt when there is violent escape of gases and lava from the volcano. In 79AD, Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupted, destroying the Roman city of Pompeii. The worst volcanic disaster in the twentieth century was in Martinique, a French island in the Caribbean Sea. A volcano called Mount Pelée near the town of St Pierre erupted on the morning of the 8th May 1902. Of the 30,000 people in St Pierre, just two survived.Can we predict when a volcano is going to erupt?
Nowadays, scientists usually know when volcano is going to erupt. In 1991, the Pinatubo volcano, 100 kilometers northwest of Manila in the Philippines, began one of the largest eruptions of the twentieth century. Thanks to the scientists’ warnings, more than 100,000 people left the area before the volcano erupted on 15th June.
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