Volcanoes earth's way of creating new land.  Most of the islands that exist today are formed from active or recently active volvanoes like Hawaii and Japan.  An active volcano is one that still erupts and an inactive or dormant volcano is one that doesn't erupt any more and may not erupt again.

            Many volcanoes erupt around the world continue to erupt.  Many lie under the ocean and are undetected.  Seafloor spreading causes the continents to move.  Seafloor spreading is caused by under water volcanoes.  Volcanoes are hazards to people who live near them.  In some places people have to rebuild their homes every now and then because of lava flow from nearby volcanoes.

             In this site I will talk about how volcanoes work and how they affect earth's crust.  Volcanoes are very interesting and yet very interesting.  I hope you enjoy viewing my volcano website.  How ever it may be boring I don't care.
                                                  2 volcanoes

                                              Mount St. Helens

            Mount St. Helens has had only one historic eruption known to man.  Mount St. helens began to show signs of activity on the spring of 1980.  Many small earthquakes occured on March 16. steam began to make small explosions on March 27.  The crater expanded to about 1,300 ft in diameter by about this time.
            On May 18 a magnitude of 5.1 earthquake occured at 8:32.  The volcanoes summit slid down the side in a gigantic landslide.  The biggest ever recorded.  The crater exploded in a huge volcanic rock and ash cloud.  This killed many animals around mount St. Helens.  People who saw this got in their cars and left as fast as they could.The ash created by the volcano traveled as far as 250 miles and it caused the sky to be comletely black in Spokane.  The volcano destroyd many trees and wildlife.  This was the most devistating volcano to hapen in the united states.

                                                  Mount Vesuvius
            Mount Vesuvius is in Naples Italy where the African plate meets the Eurasion plate.  The most famous eruption happened in 79 ad in the city of Pompeii Italy.  The volcano exploded in a huge cloud of ash that covered the city.  All the houses and the people were covered in volcanic ash and rock.  Over time the volcanic ash turned into rock leaving a solid rock cast over most things including people.

                                             Hazards of Volcanoes
            Volcaneos are very dangerous.   Lava can flow down from the volcano and can cover nearby cities.  Huge clouds of ash can cover towns and pollute water.  Volcanic gases can flow down from the volcano and people animals and plants will suffocate.

                                            Causes of eruptions
            A volcano doesnt just decide to erupt. How do volcanoes erupt?  Molten rock under the earth's crust called magma is heated and it rises and collects in magma chambers.  Over time the pressure builds up and soon enough it will erupt.  The magma that reaches the surface is called lava.
 

                                                Signs of Eruption
            There are sign that a volcano may erupt some time in the future.
One sign is recent earthquakes that may occur.  Some times a buldge in the land may indicate a volcano eruption.  Most of the time steam will rise from a volcano that is heating up.  Scientists use seismographs to measure the activeness of a volcano.  Usually before a volcano erupts there wil be more seismic activity

            For more info on volcaoes go to Volcano World