Kinds Of Volcanoes According To Activity

Volcanoes are wondrous sights in which you can witness hot lava or volcanic ash eruption through the ruptures in the crust of the earth. There are different kinds of volcanoes according to activity around the world that are classified as dormant volcanoes, active volcanoes and extinct volcanoes. These volcanoes are further classified as per their shape – composite volcanoes, cinder cones, lava domes and shield volcanoes. All volcanoes eruption are not a common occurrence and eruptions happen as per level of activity that is studied by scientists over the world, which helps in predicting the nature and consistency of the eruption.

Let us learn about the different kinds of volcanoes according to activity around the world and understand why they are named as active volcanoes, dormant volcanoes or extinct volcanoes

Active Volcanoes

As the name suggest, active volcanoes are the type of volcanoes that in general have been active for a certain period of time. However there is no consensus among most scientist on the matter of how long ago should the volcano have erupted to consider it an active volcano. Considering the facts that most active volcanoes have erupted around a dozen times in the past 10,000 years, this period of time is safely assumed for a volcano eruption to be considered active. As off today there are about 1500 active volcanoes in the world and about 50 of them erupt every year. Some common examples of active volcanoes in the world are Mount Fuji I Japan, Kilauea in Hawaii, Santa Maria in Guatemala and Mount Etna in Italy.

Dormant Volcanoes

There is a general confusion in understanding the difference between an active and a dormant volcano. Most of the time these dormant volcanoes are assumed to be inactive for more than thousands of years however there have been several exceptions to this rule. There are many volcanoes that have erupted when the chances of them ever erupting were next to nil but they surprised everyone by erupting after thousands of years. These kinds of volcanoes according to activity can cause the most damage as the eruptions are not expected and people are not generally prepared. There could be settlements living around these dormant volcanoes that can face the most damage. They are now commonly known as inactive volcanoes as the volcanic activity cannot be predicted. Some of the common examples of dormant volcanoes in the world are Mauna Kea in Hawaii, Sete Cidades in Portugal, Mount Hood in USA and Mount Teide in Spain.

Extinct Volcanoes

These kinds of volcanoes according to activity as assumed unlikely to erupt as the supply of magma from the volcano is depleted. These volcanoes have not erupted in millions of years and there no chance of any lava or ash eruption as the magma source is completely absent in these volcanoes. Some of the common extinct volcanoes in the world are Mount Ashitaka in Japan, Mount Buninyong in Australia and Kyushu Palau ridge in the Philippines Sea.

These are some kinds of volcanoes according to activity.