How do the Ayelu and Likaiu volcanoes?
How do the Ayelu and Likaiu volcanoes fit into the pattern observed? Both volcanoes reside in locations of increased seismic activity, so that means they are near fault lines or plate boundaries. A triple junction is the place where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet.
What processes are going on in Eastern Africa?
In East Africa, spreading processes have already torn Saudi Arabia away from the rest of the African continent, forming the Red Sea. The actively splitting African Plate and the Arabian Plate meet in what geologists call a triple junction, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden.
How are the locations of earthquakes volcanoes and mountain ranges related?
At diverging plate boundaries, earthquakes occur as the plates pull away from each other. Volcanoes also form as magma rises upward from the underlying mantle along the gap between the two plates. Second, only earthquakes occur when two plates collide (obduct), building a mountain range.
Can produce volcanoes?
The two types of plate boundaries that are most likely to produce volcanic activity are divergent plate boundaries and convergent plate boundaries. At a divergent boundary, tectonic plates move apart from one another. The Atlantic Ocean is home to a divergent plate boundary, a place called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
What are hot spots and what do they tell us about plate movement and the formation of islands?
Hotspots are plumes of magma that originate in the earth’s mantle and move outward through the crust. As a crustal tectonic plates move over hot spots mantle material upwells and erupts on the surface of the plate to form a volcano, seamount or volcanic island.
Is Africa cracking in half?
Scientists say a new ocean will form in Africa as the continent continues to split into two. It is an active continental rift that began millions of years ago, splitting at 7mm annually.
What is the relationship between earthquake and volcanoes?
But in the case of the “Ring of Fire”, earthquakes and volcanoes are not directly related. Of course earthquakes happen in these subduction zones, but they do not really cause eruptions. Nonetheless, in very specific conditions, earthquakes and volcanic activity are indeed connected.
Where is the Ring of Fire?
the Pacific Ocean
The Ring of Fire, also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The majority of Earth’s volcanoes and earthquakes take place along the Ring of Fire.
Can an inactive volcano erupt?
Dormant volcanoes have not erupted for a very long time but may erupt at a future time. Extinct volcanoes are not expected to erupt in the future. Inside an active volcano is a chamber in which molten rock, called magma, collects. Some volcanic eruptions are explosive, while others occur as a slow lava flow.
What triggers an eruption?
Although there are several factors triggering a volcanic eruption, three predominate: the buoyancy of the magma, the pressure from the exsolved gases in the magma and the injection of a new batch of magma into an already filled magma chamber.
What causes the Earth’s plates to move?
The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion, or tectonic shift.