Ethan Fritz

Mrs. Troester

English 8 Classification Essay

10 April 2017

Types of Volcanoes

Types of Volcanoes

            People have seen or heard about volcanoes, but do they know what kind they are? Volcanoes are one of the most destructive forces on Earth, and there is more to them than what people think. Today, we know about more about them than we did before. Since they are so destructive, people should know how to tell them apart, like the cinder cone, the composite, and the shield volcano.

            The most common type of volcano is the cinder cone. Cinder cone volcanoes are single vented, and because of that, they erupt straight up building the base higher with gas, ash, and lava. Cinder cones are usually not that violent, but they can do damage. There is usually not a lot of lava that comes out of it except for building the volcano higher. Mount St. Helens is a famous cinder cone volcano.  One other kind of volcano is a Composite volcano.

           

            Composite or stratovolcanoes, are steep sided with one main vent and smaller tubes reaching to the outside of the volcano. Composite volcanos can make up some of Earth’s highest mountains. They can be up to 10,000 feet tall. When a composite volcano erupts, it goes at very high speeds, shooting out hot magma and gas out the main or one of the tubes to the side. One famous composite volcano is Mt. Fuji in Japan. The last volcano is a shield volcano.

            Shield volcanoes are low to the ground with lots of vents layers with lava. When they erupt, it is low explosive, and the lava runs or splatters. The lava is very fluid so it can do a lot of damage to buildings and other things. Shield volcanoes are especially dangerous for towns that live right by a volcano because the lava runs a splatters fast. Mauna Loa is famous shield volcano. These are some of the volcanoes that people would see on a trip.

            When someone sees a volcano, they will now know what kind, what they look like, and how much damage they can do. There is cinder cone, composite (stratovolcano), and shield volcano.