Basic Volcanology
The processes of volcanoes have only just recently been discovered in last 50 years along with the theory of plate tectonics which reformed geological sciences. The earth’s outer layer, the lithosphere is a vast dynamic crust that drifts over a mantle of hot rock. Through mantle convection molten rock is able to intrude the crust to a point where the magma fully penetrates the crust to the surface to create an extrusive layer of rock (Marshak, 2015). Volcanoes are generally centred on two boundaries, subduction zones and rifts, and can also be found as hot spots in areas where the asthenosphere weakens and decompresses allowing large amounts of basaltic lava to erupt (Marshak, 2015).