A volcano is a mountain that forms when layers of lava and volcanic ash erupt and build up.
Between the molten iron core and the thin crust at the surface deep inside the earth there is a solid body of rock called the mantle. When rock from the mantle melts, moves to the surface through the crust, and releases pent-up gases, volcanoes erupt.
3. Magma rises when extremely high temperatures and pressure cause the rock to melt and become liquid rock or magma. When a large body of magma has formed, it rises through the denser rock layers towards Earths surface.
4. The difference between magma and lava is that magma is the hot molten rock inside of a volcano and lava is the molten rock that has reached the earth's surface.
5. Volcanoes can occur at divergent plate boundaries, at the convergent plate boundaries, and at locations not at plate boundaries called hot spots.
6. Plate Tectonics and volcanoes are related because the earths crust and upper most mantle form plates that move around, and when these plates converge magma is created and forced to the surface forming volcanoes. Iceland, Hawaii, and Mount Saint Heleri were formed this way.
7. There is volcanic activity in Iceland because it sits on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which is a divergent plate boundary.
8. Volcanic activity around the Pacific Ring of Fire is caused by the tectonic movement at the boundary of the Pacific Plate.
9. The difference between Iceland's and Hawaiian Islands volcanic activity is that Iceland's sits on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which is a divergent plate boundary, where a plates separate they form long deep cracks called rifts. The Hawaiian Islands sit on top of a hot spot under the Pacific Plate and the Pacific Plate is the moving over stationary hot spots.
10. Geothermal energy is the magma underneath volcanoes.
11. Two advantages of using geothermal energy to generate electricity in Hawaii would be to reduce the danger of oil spills from tankers and reduce air pollution.