A welded pyroclastic deposit; term is commonly used for deposits of bombs fused while hot and viscous. Agglutinate typically occurs in spatter cones.
Alluvium
A general term for deposits made up of a mixture of loose rocks that were produced by mechanical means (detritus). Deposits of alluvium are typically formed as a result of flooding or transportation in a stream or river. e.g. an alluvial fan.
Andesite
Volcanic rock (or lava) characteristically medium dark in color and containing 54 to 62 percent silica and moderate amounts of iron and magnesium.
Ash (volcanic)
Fine fragments (less than 2-4 mm in diameter) of volcanic rock formed by a volcanic explosion or ejection from a volcanic vent.
Ash-flow tuff
The deposit of a hot, chaotic mixture of pumice, ash, and gas (pyroclastic flow) that travels rapidly (as fast as tens of meters per second) away from a volcanic vent during an explosive eruption.
Back-arc basin
The area behind a volcanic arc and within the overriding plate in a subduction zone environment.
Basalt
Volcanic rock (or lava) that characteristically is dark in color (gray to black), contains 45 to 53 percent silica, and is rich in iron and magnesium. Basaltic lavas are more fluid than andesites or dacites, which contain more silica.
Basaltic andesite
Volcanic rock, commonly dark gray to black, with about 53-57 percent silica.
Base surge
A ring-shaped cloud of gas and suspended solid debris that moves radially outward at high velocity from the base of a vertical eruption column. Can accompany phreatomagmatic eruptions.
Batholith
A large mass of rock formed by magmatic processes that has more than 100 km2 (40 mi2) of surface exposure and no known floor.
Flow of ash and angular rock fragments larger than 26 cm or 10 in.
Bomb
Fragments ejected explosively from a volcanic vent on an arcuate, ballistic trajectory, much like a cannonball. Typically are found as part of cinder cones formed over maficvents.
Breadcrust Bomb
A breadcrust bomb is a volcanic bomb with a cracked and checkered surface, sometimes resembling the surface of a loaf of bread. The cracks develop when the outer surface of a partially molten lava fragment cools to form a brittle surface and then subsequently cracks as the hot interior expands due to the continued growth of gas bubbles.
Caldera
A large basin-shaped volcanic depression with a diameter many times larger than included volcanic vents; may range from 2 to 50 km across. Commonly formed when magma is withdrawn or erupted from a shallow underground magma reservoir. The removal of large volumes of magma may result in loss of structural support for the overlying rock, thereby leading to collapse of the ground and formation of a large depression. Calderas are different from craters, which are smaller, circular depressions created primarily by explosive excavation of rock during eruptions.
Cinder cone
A conical hill, often steep, formed by accumulation of solidified fragments of lava that fall around the vent of a single basaltic or andesitic eruption. The rock fragments, often called cinders or scoria, are glassy and contain numerous gas bubbles "frozen" into place as magma exploded into the air and then cooled quickly. Cinder cones range in size from tens to hundreds of meters tall.
Composite volcano
Steep, conical volcanoes built by the eruption of viscous lava flows, tephra, and pyroclastic flows. They are usually constructed over tens to hundreds of thousands of years and may erupt a variety of magma types (basalt to rhyolite). They typically consist of many separate vents. Synonym is stratovolcano.
Crust
The crust is the outermost major layer of the earth, ranging from about 10 to 65 km in thickness worldwide. The uppermost 15-35 km of crust is brittle enough to produce earthquakes.
Cryptodome
A body of magma that rises from depth and intrudes into the edifice of a volcano, but does not erupt on the surface. Cryptodome formation can results in a bulge or welt on the surface of a volcano.
Cumulo-volcano
A dome-shaped volcano constructed of multiple lavadomes and flows.
Dacite
Volcanic rock (or lava) that characteristically is light in color and contains 62 to 69 percent silica and moderate amounts of sodium and potassium. Dacite lavas are viscous and tend to form thick blocky lava flows or steep-sided piles of lava called lava domes. Daciticmagmas tend to erupt explosively, thus also ejecting abundant ash and pumice.
Debris avalanche
Moving masses of rock, soil and snow that occur when the flank of a mountain or volcano collapses and slides downslope. As the moving debris rushes down a volcano and into river valleys, it incorporates water, snow, trees, bridges, buildings, and anything else in the way. Debris avalanches may travel several kilometers before coming to rest, or they may transform into more water-rich lahars, which travel many tens of kilometers downstream.
Deformation
Changes to the surface of a volcano that occur due to magma movement underneath the surface. Most volcano deformation can only be detected and measured with precise surveying techniques such as with a Global Positioning System (GPS), tiltmeter, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), or an Electronic Distance Meter (EDM).
Diamict
A very poorly sorted sediment typically associated with glacial deposits.
Dike
A tabular igneous intrusion, typically much longer than it is wide.
Directed blast
A hot, low-density mixture of rock debris, ash, and gases that moves at high speed along the ground surface. Directed blasts are generated by explosions.
Dome
A steep-sided mass of viscous and often blocky lava extruded from a vent; typically has a rounded top and covers a roughly circular area. May be isolated (like the Medicine Lake Glass Flow) or, alternatively, associated with lobes or flows of lava from the same vent. Typically silicic (rhyolite or dacite) in composition.
Edifice
The main portion of a volcano built by eruption of lava, tephra, pyroclastic flows, lahars, and related volcanic deposits. Some shield volcanoes have lava flows that extend beyond the edifice.
The ascending, vertical part of the mass of erupting debris and volcanic gas that rises directly above a volcanic vent. Higher in the atmosphere, columns usually spread laterally into plumes or umbrella clouds.
Explosive eruption
An energetic eruption that produces mainly ash, pumice, and fragmental ballistic debris (as opposed to an effusive eruption).
Extensional tectonic environment
A region of the earth's crust or lithosphere that is spreading apart due to tectonic forces acting on the surrounding areas. Back-arc basins are regions of extension behind subduction zones and are often locations where volcanoes form.
Facies
A body of rock with characteristics that are the same. Typically the facies is a unit of rock that was formed under conditions reflecting a specific emplacement process e.g., a single lava flow, an ash-flow tuff, a lahar.
Fallout
A general term for all the ash and debris that falls to earth (also known as ashfall) from an eruption cloud.
Fissure
In geology, a fissure is a fracture or crack in rock along which there is a distinct separation; fissures are often filled with mineral-bearing materials. On volcanoes, a fissure is an elongate fracture or crack at the surface from which lava erupts.
The youngest geologic time period, considered to include the past approximately 12,000 years. It is almost equivalent to postglacial time.
Hydrothermal explosion
Explosion that can occur when hot water within a volcano's hydrothermal (hot water) system flashes to steam, breaking rocks and throwing them into the air.
Igneous
Refers to rocks formed by solidification from magma.
Intrusive
Molten rock that is forced into pre-existing rocks, or an igneous rock that has crystalized (turned to solid) below the earth's surface.
Isopach
A line on a map that connects geologic units of equal rock thickness. In volcanology, this typically relates to the thickness of an ash or tephra deposit from an explosive eruption.
K-Ar
Symbol for potassium-argon; typically used when referring to the potassium-argon age dating method, which measures the radioactive decay of potassium into argon and provides an absolute age for rock samples older than a few thousand years.
ka
Thousand years ago.
Lahar
Also called a volcanic mudflow or debris flow. A mixture of water and volcanic debris that moves rapidly downstream. Consistency can range from that of muddy dishwater to that of wet cement, depending on the ratio of water to debris.
Lateral Blast
A lateral (sideways) explosion with a significant low-angle component that is directed towards an area that can cover as much as 180 degrees. Because they carry rock debris at high speeds, lateral blasts can devastate areas tens to hundreds of square kilometers within a few minutes, and they can destroy manmade structures and kill all living things by abrasion, impact, burial, and heat.
Lava
General term for magma (molten rock) that has been erupted onto the surface of the Earth and maintains its integrity as a fluid or viscous mass, rather than exploding into fragments.
Lava flow
Streams of molten rock that erupt relatively non-explosively from a volcano, then move downslope until they stop, cool, and solidify.
Lava fountain
A jet of lava sprayed into the air by the rapid formation and expansion of gas bubbles in the molten rock is called a lava fountain. Lava fountains typically range from about 10 to 100 m in height, but occasionally reach more than 500 m.
Lava tube
Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow. Tubes form by the crusting over of lava channels and pahoehoe flows.
Lithic
In volcanology: rocks that are not from the primary eruptive magma, but are instead pulled from the walls of the magma storage zone or conduit during an eruption. Previously formed rocks not from the primary magma source.
Littoral cone
A cone of lava fragments built on the surface of a lava flow pouring into a body of water, usually the sea, is called a littoral cone ("littoral" refers to a shoreline).
Ma
Million years ago.
Maar
A maar is a low-relief, broad volcanic crater formed by shallow explosive eruptions. The explosions are usually caused by the heating and boiling of groundwater when magma invades the groundwater table. Maars often fill with water to form a lake.
Mafic
Describes magma that contains lower amounts of silica and is generally less viscous and less gas-rich than silicic magma. Tends to erupt effusively, as lava flows. Includes andesites (57-63 percent SiO2), basaltic andesites (53-57 percent SiO2), and basalts (47-53 percent SiO2).
Magma
Molten rock beneath the surface of the Earth.
Magma chamber
The location beneath the vent of a volcano where molten rock (magma) is stored prior to eruption. Also known as a magma storage zone or magma reservoir.
Mantle
The mantle is the part of the earth's interior between the metallic outer core (below the mantle) and the crust (above the mantle).
Resulting from one process or formation or derived from one source, or originating or developing at one place and time. e.g. a volcano built up by a single eruption.
Obsidian
Obsidian is dense volcanic glass, usually rhyolite in composition and typically black in color. Obsidian forms in lava flows where the lava cools so fast that crystals do not have time to grow.
Ophiolite
An assemblage of crustal rocks that represents a section of the Earth's oceanic crust and upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed above sea level.
Pahoehoe
Basalticlava that has a smooth, hummocky, or ropy surface. A pahoehoe flow typically advances as a series of small lobes and toes that continually break out from a cooled crust.
Paleomagnetic studies
Investigations of the orientation and(or) intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field in the past, as recorded in geologic materials. The magnetic poles wander about the Earth’s axis of rotation, and the paleomagnetic pole position at the time of cooling of a volcanic rock is “frozen in” by magnetic minerals. An empirical calibration of this “secular variation” over time allows eruption ages to be constrained and isolated outcrops to be correlated with one another.
Petrologic
Petrology is the study of rocks, including their occurrence, composition, and origin.
Phreatic eruption
An eruption that primarily involves steam explosions, usually ground water flashed into steam by the heat of subsurface magma.
Phreatomagmatic eruption
An eruption that involves both magma and water, which typically interact explosively, leading to concurrent ejection of steam and pyroclastic fragments.
Pillow lava
Mounds of elongate lavapillows formed by repeated oozing and quenching of hot basalt. First, a flexible glassy crust forms around the newly extruded lava, forming an expanded pillow. Next, pressure builds until the crust breaks and new basalt extrudes like toothpaste, forming another pillow. This sequence continues until a thick sequence may be deposited. When geologists find pillow basalts in ancient rock sequences, they may conclude that the area was once under water.
Pleistocene
The first epoch of the Quaternary period (the most recent geologic time period) that lasted from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago. It is the period of time before the Holocene.
Plinian
Plinian eruptions are large explosive events that form enormous dark columns of tephra and gas high into the stratosphere (>11 km). Such eruptions are named for Pliny the Younger, who carefully described the disastrous eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. This eruption generated a huge column of tephra into the sky, pyroclastic flows and surges, and extensive ash fall. Many thousands of people evacuated areas around the volcano, but about 2,000 were killed, including Pliny the Older.
Postglacial
Refers to the time since the end of the last major ice age - this varies by location.
Pumice
Highly vesicular volcanic ejecta, typically silicic in composition. It is essentially magma that has been frothed up by escaping gases and then cooled and solidified during eruption. Rhyoliticpumice is typically of low enough density that it floats on water. Near a vent, hot pumice can accumulate and form a pumice cone.
Pyroclastic
General term applied to volcanic products or processes that involve explosive ejection and fragmentation of erupting material. Literally means “fire-broken.”
Pyroclastic flow
A hot (typically >800°C), chaotic mixture of rock fragments, gas, and ash that travels rapidly (tens of meters per second) away from a volcanic vent or collapsing flow front.
Quaternary
The most recent geologic time period and spans 2,588,000 years ago until the present.
Resurgent dome
The central highland in many large calderas formed by gradual upwarping of the caldera floor after caldera collapse as a result of renewed magma intrusion.
Rhyodacite
Volcanic rock (or lava) that is intermediate in composition between rhyolite and dacite.
Rhyolite
Volcanic rock (or lava) that characteristically is light in color, contains 69 or more percent of silica, and is rich in potassium and sodium. Low-silica rhyolite contains 69 to 74 percent silica. High-silica rhyolite contains 75 to 80 percent silica. Rhyolitic lavas are viscous and tend to form thick blocky lava flows or steep-sided piles of lava called lava domes. Rhyolitemagmas tend to erupt explosively, commonly also producing abundant ash and pumice.
Scoria
Vesicular volcanic ejecta, essentially magma that has been frothed up by escaping gases. It is a textural variant of pumice, with scoria typically being less vesicular, denser, and usually andesitic or basaltic.
Sedimentary rocks
Sedimentary rocks are formed from pre-existing rocks or pieces of once-living organisms. Clastic sedimentary rocks are made up of pieces (clasts) of pre-existing rocks. Pieces of rock are loosened by weathering, then transported to some basin or depression where sediment is trapped. If the sediment is buried deeply, it becomes compacted and cemented, forming sedimentary rock.
Seismic tomography
Seismic tomography is similar to a CAT scan. When earthquakes occur, they sent out seismic waves, and by recording the patterns of the wave arrivals from many earthquakes on many seismometers, seismologists can calculate the wave speeds through the crust. Fast and slow wave speeds can then be interpreted to geologically understand the tectonic and/or volcanic structure of the earth.
Seismicity
The phenomenon of earth movements or earthquakes. Synonymous with seismic activity.
Shield volcano
A broad shield-shaped volcano that is built up by successive, mostly effusive, eruptions of low-silicalava.
Silica
Silicon dioxide, the most abundant rock-forming compound on Earth and the predominant molecular constituent of volcanic rocks and magmas. It tends to polymerize into molecular chains, increasing the viscosity of the magma. Basaltic magma, having lower SiO2, is fairly fluid, but with increasing contents of SiO2, andesite, dacite, and rhyolite magmas become progressively more viscous. Because it is more difficult for dissolved gas to escape from more viscous magma, higher silica magmas generally erupt more explosively.
Silicic
Describes magma that contains more than ~63 percent silica and is generally viscous, gas-rich, and tends to erupt explosively. Includes rhyolite and dacite.
Sinter
Also known as siliceoussinter. The lighweight, porous, opaline variety of silica that is white or nearly white and deposited as an incrustation by precipitation from the waters of geysers and hot springs.
Spatter cone
A steep-sided cone constructed of agglutinate at a maficvent. Most spatter cones are small (typically 10 m or less in height) and commonly form in linear groups along a fissure.
Stratigraphy (Stratigraphic)
The science of rock strata, or layers. It is concerned with all characters and attributes of rocks as sequentially timed layers and their interpretation in terms of mode of origin and geologic history. The arrangement of strata signifies chronologic order of sequence.
Stratovolcano
Steep, conical volcanoes built by the eruption of viscous lava flows, tephra, and pyroclastic flows. They are usually constructed over tens to hundreds of thousands of years and may erupt a variety of magma types (basalt to rhyolite). They typically consist of many separate vents. Synonym is composite volcano.
Subaerial
Formed in the open air, or on the Earth's surface, and not underwater or underground.
Subduction
Subduction is the process of the oceanic lithosphere colliding with and descending beneath the continental lithosphere.
Any type and size of rock fragment that is forcibly ejected from the volcano and travels an airborne path during an eruption (including ash, bombs, and scoria).
Tertiary
Geologic period from 65 million to 2.6 million years ago. This time period began with the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and signifies the end of the Cretaceous Period and the start of the Cenozoic era.
Thermal
Of or relating to heat. At volcanoes, thermal features are observed to determine whether temperatures are changing (e.g. fumaroles, vents, lava surfaces, etc...). These changes help scientists to understand volcanic processes.
Tuff
A general term for all consolidated (hardened and/or compacted) pyroclastic (explosive, volcanic origination) rocks. Synonymous with tuffaceous.
Tumulus
A tumulus is created when the upward pressure of slow-moving molten lava within a flow swells or pushes the overlying crust upward. The surfaces of pahoehoe flows on flat or gentle slopes often exhibit elliptical, domed structures called tumuli.
Unconsolidated
A unit of rocks that are loosely arranged or not layered, or whose particles are not cemented together, occurring either at the surface or at depth.
Vent
Any opening at the Earth's surface through which magma erupts or volcanic gases are emitted.
Volcaniclastic
A body of rock that is composed of fragments of volcanically derived rocks or minerals that were then transported some distance from their place of origin.