Complex volcano

An eruption from Pacaya , Guatemala in 1976

The island of Ischia in Italy

The ounce in Japan

A complex volcano ( English : complex volcano or compound volcano ) is a volcanic building , which consists of several volcano types, none of which dominates the appearance.

Such volcanoes arise when the eruption behavior changes significantly or the eruption sites shift. For example, stratovolcanoes can lose their tip due to a large Plinian eruption and form a caldera in which cinder cones or lava domes then grow.

Examples

The island of Ischia in Italy is a case in point. Here lava domes, tuff rings and cinder cones were built over an old caldera . Tufa deposits and lava flows also shape the landscape.

The ounce in Japan is made up of several overlapping stratovolcanoes and lava domes known for their dangerous pyroclastic flows .

Further examples are:

• Etna ( Sicily , Italy )
• Asama ( Honshū , Japan )
• Banahaw ( Luzon , Philippines )
• Galeras ( Colombia )
• Pacaya ( Guatemala )

literature

• Peter Francis, Clive Oppenheimer: Volcanoes . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-1992-5469-9

Web links

Commons : Complex Volcanoes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Complex volcano at VolcanoLive (English)