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At least 1,500 active volcanoes dot the globe , and some of them have been ceaselessly erupting for age . They organize when liquefied rock’n’roll called magma up and breaks through a rickety region of Earth ’s surface . The chambers that contain magma can restfully lurk underground for one C of years , and then erupt with surprising Eumenides . Here are some awing facts about volcanoes .
1 . The volcanic rock pumice stone is the only rock’n’roll that can float in piddle . It is usually grey and full of champagne holes , which take shape when hot gases jet furiously out of the rock as it cools .
2 . The most formidable volcanoes are calledsupervolcanoes . A supervolcanic volcanic eruption can rain red region across thousands of miles and cause worldwide climatic change , such as a drop in worldwide temperature due to the release of slews of ash corpuscle into the ambiance . These monsters rear there slimy heads only ever few hundred thousand years , however . One of the biggest is in Yellowstone National Park , and scientists say it may be due for another eruprtion .
3 . The largest volcanic eruption ever keep was ofMount Tambora , on the island of Sumbawa , in Indonesia . Its eruption in 1815 kill about 100,000 masses . Indonesia is cerebrate to have the largest number of historically alive volcanoes – a total of 76 , grant to the U.S. Geological Survey .
4 . Most volcanoes occur near the edges of architectonic plates , the monolithic rock slabs that make up Earth ’s surface . But some volcanoes , such as the Yellowstone supervolcano , lie over other " blistering spots " where magma wells up from deep within the Earth .
5 . Known as the solid ground of blast and shabu , Iceland perches atop the vent of the Atlantic ’s mid - pelagic ridgepole . The latest eruption of theEyjafjallajokull volcano(in April 2010 ) pales in comparison to the violent 1783 ’s eructation of Mount Skaptar , which devastated the island ’s farming and sportfishing reserves and caused a famine that killed a fifth of the country ’s people .
6 . The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines was even worse . This volcano purge 22 million scores of sulfur dioxide , which encircled the intact planet and brought the global temperature down at least 0.5 degrees C , according to the USGS .
7 . Volcanoes can develop . As lava and ash accumulate , they add layer and tiptop to the volcanic surface . This is one coarse path batch are built .
8 . Volcanoes can become nonextant . If scientist do not expect a volcano to ever combust ever again , they moot it to be extinct . vent that are not currently dynamic but may erupt again are labeled dormant .
9 . The sheer force play of some volcanic eructation can cause its magma chambers to crack up , forming a gargantuan , bowl - shaped volcanic crater shout a caldera .
10 . The biggest volcano on Earth is Hawaii ’s Mauna Loa . One of the five volcanoes in Hawaii , it towers 13,000 feet above sea layer . The Hawaiian Islands were really create by a hot spot .
11 . volcano make sunsets more colorful . When Alaska ’s Kasatochi vent erupt in 2008 , people all over the humans sawunusually beautifulorange and coral hues in sunsets . This visual phenomenon is the result of fine ash tree corpuscle in the atmospheric state spread out the sun ’s rays .
