Cerro Azul volcano a basaltic shield volcano on the SW part of Isabela Island in the Galápagos Islands. It has the same name as Cerro Azul volcano in Chile, meaning “Blue Mountain” in Spanish.
Cerro Azul is one of the most active volcanoes of the Galapagos hot spot.
Cerro Azul, 1640 m high and the second highest peak of the Galápagos archipelago, is a typical shield volcano located at the SW tip of Isabela Island. It is one of the most active volcanoes of the Galapagos, although historic records from its activity only dates back to 1932.
As most of the other shield volcanoes on the Galapagos island, it has a steep-walled 4 x 5 km nested summit caldera, one of the smallest diameter, but at 650 m one of the deepest in the Galápagos Islands. Young lava lows cover most of the floor of the caldera, where temporary lava lakes are sometimes present during summit eruptions. Numerous spatter cones from lateral fissure eruptions dot the western flanks of the volcano.
Fernandina, the most active of Galápagos volcanoes and the one closest to the Galápagos mantle plume, is a basaltic shield volcano with a deep 5 x 6.5 km summit caldera. The volcano displays the classic “overturned soup bowl” profile of Galápagos shield volcanoes. Its caldera is elongated in a NW-SE direction and formed during several episodes of collapse. Circumferential fissures surround the caldera and were instrumental in growth of the volcano. Reporting has been poor in this uninhabited western end of the archipelago, and even a 1981 eruption was not witnessed at the time. In 1968 the caldera floor dropped 350 m following a major explosive eruption. Subsequent eruptions, mostly from vents located on or near the caldera boundary faults, have produced lava flows inside the caldera as well as those in 1995 that reached the coast from a SW-flank vent. Collapse of a nearly 1 cu km section of the east caldera wall during an eruption in 1988 produced a debris-avalanche deposit that covered much of the caldera floor and absorbed the caldera lake.
A 6 x 7 km caldera, at 700 m one of the deepest of the Galápagos Islands, is located at the volcano’s summit. A prominent bench on the west side of the caldera rises 450 above the caldera floor, much of which is covered by a lava flow erupted in 1982.
Radial fissures concentrated along diffuse rift zones extend down the north, NW, and SE flanks, and submarine vents lie beyond the north and NW fissures. Similar unvegetated flows originating from a circumferential chain of spatter and scoria cones on the eastern caldera rim drape the forested flanks of the volcano to the sea. The proportion of aa lava flows at Volcán Wolf exceeds that of other Galápagos volcanoes. Wolf’s 1797 eruption was the first documented historical eruption in the Galápagos Islands.
Etna’s eruptions have been documented since 1500 BC, when phreatomagmatic eruptions drove people living in the eastern part of the island to migrate to its western end. The volcano has experienced more than 200 eruptions since then, although most are moderately small. Historic eruptions are recorded for the year 479 B.C., 1329, 1381 and 1536, one of the largest and most destructive eruptions was a flank eruption in March to July 1669 from near the village of Nicolosi (800m a.s.l.) which produced the cinder cone Monti Rossi and a 14km long lava flow which, despite it was partially deviated from its path by a artificial dam, destroyed part of the city of Catania, obstructed the harbour and caused victims.
Cinder cones on Etna erupted again in 1763, 1811, 1852, 1865, 1879 and 1892. In the 20th century, concentrated on two main branches extending from the crest, lava erupted in 1908, 1910, 1911, 1918, 1923, 1928, 1942, 1947, 1949 and 1950-1951, 1964, 1968, 1971, 1981, 1983, 1989 and 1991 (the most voluminous eruption since 1669) to 1993.
The activity continues in the 21th century, from 2001 Etna is more or less active (in 2002 and 2003 the volcano produced spectacular ash plumes), weaker since 2008 now the activity increased again since 12 January 2011.
Kavachi is the most active undersea volcano in the world.
Kavachi submarine volcano -20 m
Solomon Islands, -9.02°S / 157.95°E
Current status: dormant (1 out of 5)
Kavachi volcano is a submarine volcano located south of the remote Vangunu Island in the Solomones. Kavachi volcano is also known as Rejo te Kvachi, “Kavachi’s Oven”. Kavachi volcano with near surface eruptions every few years that often build temporary islands.
Kavachi submarine volcano in different stages. The volcano has emerged and eroded back into the ocean at least ten times since it was first recorded.
How a new island is made by show Mother Nature? Watch the Kavachi undersea volcano as it erupts underwater.
Stratovolcano elevation: 2968 m
Central Java, Indonesia: 7.54°S, 110.44°E
Merapi, a steep stratovolcano north of Central Java’s capital Yogyakarta, is Indonesia’s most active volcano. It erupts on average every 5-10 years and is feared for its deadly pyroclastic flows – avalanches of hot rocks and gas that are generated when parts of new lava domes constructed during eruptions in the summit crater collapse and slide down the mountain’s steep flanks.
The name “Merapi” from old Javanese language means “the one making fire” is a popular name for volcanoes: another volcano with the same name Merapi is in the Ijen Massif in East Java and similarly called volcano “Marapi” lies on Sumatra Island.
The Yellowstone Caldera is the volcanic caldera located in the United States, The Yellowstone Caldera sometimes referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano. The caldera is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming. The major features of the caldera measure about 55 by 72 km).
The caldera formed during the last of three supereruptions over the past 2.1 million years:
the Huckleberry Ridge eruption 2.1 million years ago (which created the Island Park Caldera and the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff);
the Mesa Falls eruption 1.3 million years ago (which created the Henry’s Fork Caldera and the Mesa Falls Tuff);
the Lava Creek eruption approximately 630,000 years ago (which created the Yellowstone Caldera and the Lava Creek Tuff).
Mauna Loa volcano is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Mauna Loa has is the world’s largest subaerial, its most active giant shield volcano.
Location: 19.475 N 155.608 W.
Elevation above sea level: 4,170 m.
Area: 5,271 km2 (50.5% of Hawaii island)
Volume: 80,000 km3.
Hawaii Mauna Loa Volcano Eruption&Lava Flow. Video.
The origin of the Reunion Island is commonly attributed to a mantle hotspot. According to certain scientists, this hotspot first created the Deccan Traps, a large basalt province in India, about 65 million years ago. Its trace corresponds to Chagos-Lacadive Ridge, Mascarene Plateau, and Mauritius Island (created between 18 and 28 million years ago). Reunion became active about 5 million years ago, reaching the surface about 2 million years ago, and is the youngest island originating from this hotspot.
Piton de la Fournaise is a basaltic shield volcano on the eastern side of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Piton de la Fournaise is one of the most active and the biggest volcanoes on Earth, along with Kilauea in the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Ocean), Stromboli, Etna (Italy) and Mount Erebus in Antarctica. From the ocean floor, it is over 6,600 m tall. The base of the volcano has a diameter of 220 km.
Location: 21.23 S; 55.71 E.
Elevation: 2,631 m.
The Enclos Fouque, a caldera 8 kilometers wide, occupies the top part of the volcano. High cliffs known as remparts form the caldera’s rim. The caldera is breached to the southeast into the sea. It is unstable and is in the initial stages of failure. It will eventually collapse into the Indian Ocean to form giant landslides like those in Hawaii.
Three calderas formed at about 250,000, 65,000, and less than 5000 years ago by progressive eastward slumping of the volcano. Numerous pyroclastic cones dot the floor of the calderas and their outer flanks.