Volcanoes around the World (Facts, Information & Distribution)

A volcano is a rupture (a sudden bursting or breaking) in the crust of a planetar-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.

On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging, and most are found underwater.

For example, a mid-ocean ridge, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates.

Volcanoes can also form where there is stretching and thinning of the crust's plates, such as in the East African Rift and the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field and Rio Grande Rift in North America.

Volcanoes are usually not created where two tectonic plates slide past one another.

While most volcanoes are created by geological activity at tectonic plate boundaries, the Hawaii hotspot is located far from plate boundaries. Hot-spot volcanism can occur in the middle of tectonic plates.

Hot-spot volcanism occurs near unusually hot parts of Earth's mantle, the layer of the planet below the crust. The upwelling of molten rock creates volcanoes that spew out lava (magma that reaches Earth's surface).

Magma is the term used to denote the molten rocks and related materials seen inside earth. Once this magma comes out to the earth surface through the vent of a volcano, it is called as the Lava.

The 5 countries with the most volcanoes: United States (173), Russia (166), Indonesia (139), Iceland (130), Japan (112).

Distribution

1) The Circum-Pacific Belt

2) Himalayan Belt

3) The African Rift Valley Belt

Major Volcanoes around the World