What is a volcano?
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Welcome to CoreFacts, where we're always short on time and big on science. I'm Jessica Robertson. Today we have a pretty straight forward question.
What is a volcano?
Volcanoes are mountains, but they are very different from other mountains. They are not formed by folding and crumpling or by uplift and erosion. Instead, volcanoes are built by the accumulation of their own eruptive products—lava, bombs, ashflows, and tephra—which is airborne ash and dust.
A volcano is most commonly a conical hill or mountain built around a vent that connects with reservoirs of molten rock below the surface of the Earth. The term volcano also refers to the opening or vent through which the molten rock and associated gases are expelled.
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