Link to USGS home page
USGS Home
Contact USGS
Search USGS
Coastal & Marine Geology InfoBank

USGS CMG InfoBank: Volcanoes Far From Plate Margins

Skip navigational links
Search InfoBank
Home tab FACS tab Activities tab Atlas tab Geology School tab More tab More tab Geology School tabs
   
Dictionaries: The USGS and Science Education   USGS Fact Sheets   Topics   Keywords   Data Dictionary   Metadata Dictionary   Computer Terminology   Digital Formats
InfoBank Terms: Activity ID   activity overview   crew   formal metadata   lines   metadata   NGDC   port stops   project/theme   region   ship   stations   time   virtual globe   year  
Data Types: bathymetry   geodetic positioning   gravity   ground penetrating radar   imagery   LIDAR   magnetics   metering equipment   navigation   samples   seismic   definitions disclaimer  
Data Formats: ARC coverage   E00   FGDC metadata   gridded/image   imaging   material   scattered/swath   Shapefile   vector/polygon  
   
Comment: 11:51 - 13:20 (01:29)

Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 13. Volcanism

Keywords: "Richard Hazlett", "Robert Tilling", volcano, "convergent plate margin", "divergent plate margin", "oceanic hot spot", desert, California, subduction, "cinder cone", crust, tension, fracture, "plate tectonics", pressure, magma, eruption

Our transcription: Volcanoes are for the most part associated with convergent and divergent plate boundaries or well established hot spots, but there are some intriguing exceptions.

Volcanic activity has occasionally occurred far from these settings, such as here in the desert of southeastern California.

We're 700 kilometers from the nearest convergent plate boundary where subduction related volcano activity is occurring and 200 or 300 kilometers from the nearest divergent plate boundary.

And yet here we sit near the top of a young cinder cone volcano that has been active probably within the past few thousand years far from a plate boundary.

Well, that's certainly right, Rick.

Most of the volcanoes are no longer plate boundaries, but throughout the world there are lots of places where the crust is being stretched by tensional forces and fractures are opening up.

I think this still reflects plate tectonics in some sense because the crust is being thinned and pulled apart, and under that tension the crust actually fractures, and if you have that situation, the pressure is relieved on the system so the magma then can rise up.

So wherever in this region you have localized magma due to whatever heat sources that might exist, the magma will come through and erupt and form a cinder cone.

Geology School Keywords

Skip footer navigational links


InfoBank   Menlo Park & Santa Cruz Centers   St. Petersburg Center   Woods Hole Center   Coastal and Marine Geology Program   Geologic Information   Ask-A-Geologist   USGS Disclaimer  

FirstGov button   Take Pride in America button