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Today, these mountains evoke peace and serenity that belies the violence in their history. Volcanoes in many other parks erupted in the even more distant past.

The most recent eruption at the Lassen volcanic center in California occurred in 1917.Ī number of other national parks contain volcanoes that have had prehistoric eruptions.

Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska is one of the world’s most active volcanic areas with 10 volcanoes that have had historic eruptions.

Kilauea in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park was active from 1983 to 2018, and has had shorter periods of eruption since then.

National parks are great places to observe current volcanic activity. A magma’s composition, viscosity, and gas content, the eruption rate, and the size of the magma reservoir determines many aspects of eruptions, including how explosive they are. Some volcanic eruptions consist of mostly gas emissions, others are relatively quiet discharges of fluid lava, and yet others are cataclysmic explosions.ĭifferent kinds of eruptions leave characteristic deposits that, in turn, build different types of volcanoes. Illustration of the basic process of magma formation, movement to the surface, and eruption through a volcanic vent. The place to begin an exploration of the diversity of the different types and kinds of volcanic eruptions is with the definition.Ī volcanic eruption is the expulsion of gases, rock fragments, and/or molten lava from within the Earth through a vent onto the Earth’s surface or into the atmosphere. While a great range in the type, style, and violence of volcanic eruptions exists, they all are part of one of the most fundamental geologic processes that builds and shapes Earth’s crust. Or they may consist of terrifying explosions that send clouds of scorching hot ash high into the atmosphere or roaring down a volcano’s slopes and destroying everything in its path. They may be strangely beautiful as fountains of glowing-red lava rise above a vent to feed a lava flow that spreads rapidly downhill.

Volcanic eruptions are among the most awesome of all natural phenomena on Earth. William Holmes Spaulding Photograph Collection: Photographic postcard of Lassen Peak in eruption.

The 1914-1917 eruption of Lassen Peak was the most recent eruption in the continental United States until the 1980 eruption of Mt St Helens.

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