Cinder Cones of Volcanoes

Cinder Cones of Volcanoes

Earth may seen solid and firm, but the planet is actually made up of a number of rigid crustal plates, that is lithosphere, floating on a sea of semi- molten rock, that is the Asthenosphere. These vast plates are relatively mobile and vast around at a rate of several inches per year. Roughly as fast as a fingernail grows, volcanoes of various types erupt along the boundaries of these tectonic plates.

Typically there are three types of volcanoes:-

1. Rift volcanoes,

2. Composite volcanoes, and

3. Shield volcanoes.

Cinder Cones

Cinder cones are cone- shaped structures built entirely of volcanic bombs, Cinders and ash. They are the result of shorter – lived single events and rarely rise over 1,000 feet (305m). A fire fountain of lava erupting may begin to “freeze” mid- air, before hitting the ground as solid fragments. Continuous explosive eruptions may also force huge amounts of cinders into the atmosphere. The larger pieces fall closest to the vent, eventually forming a cone with a bowl at its centre. Paricutin in Mexico is a classic example. It started as a crack in a farmer`s field in 1943, but by 1944 had buried the nearby village, leaving only the church steeple showing.

Such cones can also form from highly explosive, single cannon- blast like surface from the mantle. However, such volcanoes have never been seen erupting. Cinder cones, being made up of loose fragments, erode away quite quickly. Composite volcanoes, with their alluring, classic pointy shape, are by far the most dangerous in the world. Unfortunately their danger only becomes apparent every few generations or more, but it is then during the explosive phase, that they can wipe out entirely the toil of all generations that lived since the last eruption.