What Are Volcanoes?

Our world has two points of energy. One is the out there, at the centre of our solor system, known as the Sun. The other is magma found 2000 miles below your feet. Magma, is hot molten rock, some 12000 degrees F. at the centre of our planet.

A volcano is a location where magma, like a champagne bottle, reaches the surface due to a pressure build up. It may happen violently, in a massive supersonic explosion or more quitely like slowly poured liquid honey. Lava, no matter how magnificent it may appear leaves a deadly grave for anything that stands in its way.

	Volumes of Historical Volcanoes Eruption Place Volume in km^3 Paricutin, Mexico 1943 1.3 Mount Vesuvius 79 AD 3 Mt. St. Helen,WA 1980 4 Krakatoa, Indonesia 1888 18 Long Valley, CA pre-historic 500-600 Yellowstone, WY pre-historic 2400

Volcanoes have been a part of the Earth's history long before humans. Compare the history of human beings, a few million years in the making, to that of the Earth, over four billion years in the making. Over the last millenium, scientists have calculated that volcanos have taken over 300,000 lives.