VOLCANIC AND TECTONIC LANDFORMS

Landforms

Landforms are the surface features of the land - for example, mountain peaks, cliffs, canyons,
plains, beaches, and sand dunes. Landforms are created by many processes, and much of the
remainder of this book describes landforms and how they are produced. Geomorphology is
the scientific study of the processes that shape landforms. In this chapter, we will examine
landforms produced directly by volcanic and tectonic processes.

*The shapes of continental surfces reflect the ''balance of power'', so to speak, between two
sets of forces. Internal earth forces act to move crustal materials upward through volcanic and
tectonic precesses, thus creating new rock at the earth's surface. In opposition are processes
and forces that act to lower continental surfaces by removing and transporting mineral matter
through the action of running water, waves and currents, glacial ice, and wind. We can refer
to these processes of land sculpture collectively as denudation. *Seen in this perspective,
landforms in general fall into two basic groups – initial landforms and sequential landforms.
Initial landforms are produced directly by volcanic and tectonic activity. They include
volcanoes and lava flows, as well as downdropped rift valleys and elevated mountain blocks
in zones of recent crustal deformation. Figure 12.1a shows a mountain block uplifted by
crustal activity. The energy for lifting molten rock and rigid crustal masses to produce the
initial landforms has an internal heat source. This heat energy is generated largely by natural
radioactivity in rock of the earth's crust and mantle. It is the fundamental energy source for
the motions of lithospheric plates. *Landforms shaped by processes and agents of denudation
belong to the group of sequential landforms. The word ''sequential'' means that they follow in
sequence after the initial landforms have been created, and a crustal mass has been raised to
an elevated position. Figure 12.1b shows an uplifted crustal block (an initial landform) that
has been attacked by agents of denudation and carved up into a large number of sequential
landforms. *You can think of any landscape as representing the existing stage in a great
contest of opposing forces. As lithospheric plates collide or pull apart, internal earth forces
periodically elevate parts of the crust to create initial landforms. The external agents of
denudation – running water, waves, wind, and glacial ice – persistently wear these masses
down and carve them into vast numbers of smaller sequential landforms. *Today we can
observe the many stages of this endless struggle between internal and external forces by
traveling to different parts of the globe. Where we find high alpine mountains and volcanic

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chains, internal earth forces have recently dominated the contest. In the rolling low plains of
the continental interiors, the agents of denudation have won a temporary victory. At other
locations, we can find many intermediate stages. Because the internal earth forces act
repeatedly and violently, new initial landforms keep coming into existence as old ones are
subdued.

Volcanic activity

We have already identified vulcanism, or volcanic activity, as one of the forms of mountain-
building. The extrusion of magma builds landforms, and these can acumulate in a single area
both as volcanoes and as thick lava flows. Through these volcanic activities, imposing
mountain ranges are constructed. *A volcano is a conical or dome-shaped initial landform
built by the emission of lava and its contained gases from a constricted vent in the earth's
surface (Figure 12.2). The magma rises in a narrow, pipelike conduit from a magma reservoir
lying beneath. Upon reaching the surface, igneous material may pour out in tonguelike lava
flows. Magma may also be ejected in the form of solid fragments driven skyward under
pressure of confined gases. Ejected fragments, ranging in size from boulders to fine dust, are
collectively called tephra. Forms and dimensions of a volcano are quite varied, depending on
the type of lava and the presence or absence of tephra.

Stratovolcanoes

The nature of volcanic eruption, whether explosive or quiet, depends on the type of magma.
Recall from Chapter 10 that there are two main types of igneous rocks: felsic and mafic. The
felsic lavas (rhyolite and andesite) have a high degree or viscosity – that is, they are thick and
gummy, and resist flow. So, volcanoes of felsic composition typically have steep slopes, and
lava usually does not flow long distances from the volcano's vent. In addition, felsic lava
usually hold large amounts of gas under high pressure. As a result, these lavas can produce
explosive eruptions. The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 is an example of an explosive
eruption of felsic lavas (Figure 12.3). *Tall, steep-sided volcanin cones are produced by felsic
lavas. These cones usually steepen toward the sumit, where a bowl-shaped depression – the
crater – is located. When the volcano erupts, tephra falls on the area surrounding the crater
and contributes to the structure of the cone. Volcanic bombs are also included in the tephra.
These solidified masses of lava range up to the size of large boluders and fall close to the
crater. Very fine volcanic dust can rise high into the trposphere and stratosphere, traveling
hundreds or thousands of kilometers before settling to the earth's surface (Figure 12.3). *The

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interlayering of ash strata and sluggish streams of felsic lava produces a stratovolcano. Lofty,
conical stratovolcanoes are well known for their scenic beauty. Fine examples are Mount
Hood and Mount St. Helens in the Cascade Range (12.3), Fujiyama in Japan, Mount Mayon
in the Philippines (Figure 12.4 : Mount Mayon, in southeastern Luzon, the Philipphines, is
often considered the world's most nearly perfct composite volcanic cone. It is an active
volcano, and its summit rises to an altitude of nearly 2400 m. A series of eruptions began here
in February 1993.), and Mount Shishaldin in the Aleutian Islands. *Another important form
of emission from explosive stratovolcanoes is a cloud of white-hot gases and fine ash. This
intensely hot cloud, or ''glowing avalanche'', travels rapidly down the flank of the volcanic
cone, searing everything in its path. On the Caribbean island of Martinique, in 1902, a
glowing cloud issued without warning from Mount Pelee. It swept down on the city of St.
Pierre, destroying the city and killing all but two of its 30.000 inhabitants.

Calderas

One of the most catastrophic of natural phenomena is a volcanic explosion so violent that it
destroys the entire central portion of the volcano. Vast quantities of ash and dust are emitted
and fill the atmosphere for many hundreds of square kilometers around the volcano. There
remains only a great central depression named a caldera. Although some of the upper part of
the volcano is blown outward in fragments, most of it settles back into the cavity formed
beneath the volcano by the explosion. *Krakatoa, a volcanic island in Indonesia, exploded in
1883, leaving a huge caldera. It is estimated thar 75 cu km of rock was blown out of the crater
during the explosion. Great seismic sea waves generated by the explosion killed many
thousands of persons living in low coastal areas of Sumatra and Java. *A classic example of a
caldera produced in prehistoric times is Crater Lake, Oregon (Figure 12.5 : Crater Lake,
Oregon, is surrounded by the high, steep wall of a great caldera. Wizard Island-center
foreground- is an almost perfect basaltic cinder cone with basalt lava flows. It was built on
the floor of the caldera after the major explosive activity had ceased). The former volcano,
named Mount Mazama, is estimated to have risen 1200 m higher than the present caldera rim.
The great explosion and collapse ocurred about 6600 years ago.

Stratovolcanoes and Subduction Arcs

Most of the world's active stratovolcanoes lie within the circum – Pacific belt. Here,
subduction of the Pacific, Nazca, Cocos, and Juan de Fuca plates is active. In Chapter 11 , we
explained how andesitic magmas rise beneath volcanic arcs of active continental margins and

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island arcs. One good example is the volcanic arc of Sumatra and Java, lying over the
subduction zone between the Australian plate and the Eurasian plate. Another is the Aleutian
volcanic arc, located where the Pacific plate dives beneath the North American plate. The
Cascade Mountains of northern California, Oregon, and Washington form a similar chain.
Important segments of the Andes Mountains in South America consist of stratovolcanoes.

Shield Volcanoes

In contrast to thick, gassy felsic lava, mafic lava (basalt) is often highly fluid. It typically has
a low viscosity and holds little gas. As a result, eruptions of basaltic lava are usually quiet,
and the lava can travel long distances to spread out in thin layers. Tipically, then, large
basaltic volcanoes are broadly rounded domes with gentle slopes. Hawaiian volcanoes are of
this type. *Volcanic activity involving basaltic lavas can occur in the midst of oceanic or
continental lithospeheric plates. Here, in isolated spots far from active plate boudaries,
basaltic lavas are created by mantle plumes – isolated columns of molten material rising
slowly within the asthenosphere. Directly above a matle plume, crustal basalt is heated to the
point of melting and produces a magma pocket. The site of rising magma is called a hot spot.
Magma of basaltic composition makes its way through the overlying lithosphere to emerge at
the surface as lava. *Where matle plumes create hot spots in the oceanic lithosphere, the
emerging basalt builds a class of initial landforms known as shield volcanoes. These broad
basaltic domes are constructed on the deep ocean floor, far from plate boundaries, and may be
built high enough to rise above sea level as volcanic islands. As a lithospheric plate drifts
slowly over a mantle plume beneath, a succession of shield volcanoes is formed. Thus, a
chain of basaltic volcanic islands comes into existence. Several such chains exist in the
Pacific Ocean basin, including the Midway Islands and the Hawaiian group. *A few basaltic
volcanoes also occur along the mid-oceanic ridge, where sea-floor spreading is in progress.
Perhaps the outstanding example is Iceland, in the North Atlantic Ocean. Island is constructed
entirely of basalt. Basaltic flows are superimposed on older basaltic rocks as dikes and sills
formed by magma emerging from deep within the spreading rift. Mount Hekla, an active
volcano on Iceland, is a shield volcano somewhat similar to those of Hawaii. Other islands
consisting of basaltic volcanoes located along or close to the axis of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
are the Azores, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha.

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Hawaiian Volcanoes

The shield volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands are characterized by gently rising, smooth
slopes that flatten near the top, producing a broad-topped volcano (Figure 12.6 : Basaltic
shield volcanoes of Hawaii. At lower left is the now-cold Halemau-mau fire pit, formed in the
floor of the central depression of Kilauea volcano. On the distant skyline is the snow-capped
summit of Manua Kea volcano, its elevation over 4000 m). Domes on the island of Hawaii
rise to summit elevations of about 4000 m above sea level. Including the basal portion lying
below sea level, they are more than twice that high. In width they range from 16 to 80 km at
sea level and up to 160 km wide at the submerged base. The basalt lava of the Hawaiian
volcanoes is highly fluid and travels far down the gentle slopes. Most of the lava flows issue
from fissures (long, gaping cracks) on the flanks of the volcano. *Hawaiian lava domes have a
wide, steep-sided central depression that may be 3 km or more wide and several hundred
meters deep. These large depressions are a type of collapse caldera. Molten basalt is
sometimes seen in the floors of deep pit craters that occur on the floor of the central
depressions or elsewhere over the surface of the lava dome. *The chain of Hawaiian
volcanoes were created by the motion of the Pacific plate over a ''hotspot''-a plume of
upwelling basaltic magma deep within the mantle. With this mechanism, each volcano is
created by the rising of hotspot magma, but then eventually the volcano moves away fom the
hotspot, becoming extinct and subject to erosion. Wind, water, waves, and subsidence
eventually reduce the volcano to a sunken island platform (The Life Cycle of a Volcano
describes this process in more detail).

Flood Basalts

Where a mantle plume lies beneath a continental lithospheric plate, the hotspot may generate
enormous volumes of basaltic lava that emerge from numerous vents and fissures and
accumulate layer upon layer. The basalt may ultimately attain a thickness of thousands of
meters and cover thousands of square kilometers. These accumulations are called flood
basalts. *An important American example is found in the Columbia Plateau region of
southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, and westernmost Idaho. Here, basalts of
Cenozoic age cover an area of about 130.000 km² - nearly the same area as the state of New
York. Individual basalt flows, exposed in the walls of river gorges, are expressed as cliffs in
which vertical joint columns are conspicuous (Figure 12.7. : Basalt lava flows exposed in

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cliffs bordering the Columbia River in Washington. Each set of cliffs is a major lava flow. In
cooling, the lava acquires a vertical structure that makes it crack into tall columns).

Cinder Cones

Associated with flood basalts, shield volcanoes, and scattered occurrences of basaltic lava
flows is a small volcano known as a cinder cone (Figure 12.8 : This young cider cone is
surrounded by rough-surfaced basalt lava flows. Lava Beds National Mounument, northern
California). Cinder cones form when frothy basalt magma is ejected under high pressure from
a narrow vent, producing tephra. The rain of tephra accumulates around the vent to form a
roughly circular hill with a central crater. Cinder cones rarely grow to heights of more than a
few hundred meters. An exceptionally fine example of a cinder cone is Wizard Island, built on
the floor of Crater Lake long after the caldera was formed (Figure 12.5).

Hot Springs and Geysers

Where hot rock material is near the earth's surface, it can heat nearby groundwater to high
temperatures. When the groundwater reaches the surface, it provides hot springs at
temperatures not far below the boiling point of water (Figure 12.9 : Mammoth Hot Sprongs,
an example of geothermal activity in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Terraces ringed
by mineral deposits hold steaming pools of hot water). At some places, jetlike emissions of
steam and hot water occur at intervals from small vents – producing geysers (Figure 12.10).
Since the water that emerges from hot springs and geysers is largely groundwater that has
been heated in contact with hot rock, this water is recycled surface water. Little, if any, is
water that was originally held in rising bodies of magma.

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AS ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS

The eruptions of volcanoes and lava flows are environmental hazards of the severest sort,
often taking a heavy toll of plant and animal life and devastating human habitations. What
natural phenomenon can compare with the Mount Pelee disaster in which thousands od lives
were snuffed out in seconds? Perhaps only an earthquake or storm surge of a tropical cyclone
id equally disastrous. *Wholesale loss of life and destruction of towns and cities are frequent
in the history of people who live near active volcanoes. Loss occurs principally from
sweeping clouds of incandescent gases that descend the volcano slopes like great avalanches,
from lava flows whose relentless advance engulfs whole cities, from the descent of showers of
ash, cinders, and bombs, and from violent earthquakes associated with volcanic activity. For

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habitations along low-lying coasts there is the additional peril of great seismic sea waves,
generated elsewhere by explosive destruction of volcanoes. *In 1985, an explosive eruption of
Ruiz Volcano in the Colombian Andes caused the rapid melting of ice and anow in the
summit area. Mixing with volcanic ash, the water formed a variety of mudflow knowns as a
lahar. Rushing downslope at speeds up to 145 km per hour, the lahar became channeled into a
valley on the lower slopes, where it gulfed a town and killed more than 20.000 persons.
*Despite their potential for destructive activity, volcanoes are a valuable natural resource in
terms of recreation an tourism. Few landscapes can rival in beauty the mountainous
landscapes of volcanic origin. National parks have been made of Mount Rainier, Mount
Lassen, and Crater Lake in the Cascade Range, a mountain mass largely of volcanic
construction. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park recognizes the natural beauty of Mauna Loa
and Kilauea. Their breathtaking displays of molten lava are a living textbook of igneous
processes.

Geographical Aspects of Volcanoes

The surfaces of volcanoes and lava flows remain barren and sterile for long periods after their
formation. Certain types of lava surfaces are extremely rough and difficult to traverse; the
Spaniards who encountered such terrain in the sothwestern United States named it malpais
(bad ground). Most volcanic rock in time produce highly fertile soils that are extensively
cultivated.

Volcanic ash may have a remarkably beneficial effect upon productivity of soil where the ash
fall is relatively light. The eruption of Sunset Crater, near Flagstaff, Arizona, spread a layer of
sandy volcanic ash over the barren reddish soil of the surrounding region and caused it to
become highly productive because of the moisture-conserving effect of the ash, which acted
as a mulch in the semi-arid climate. Because Hopi Indian corn grows well in sand, this
development attracted Indians, who settled the area thickly. As the ash was gradually washed
off of the slopes by heavy summer rains or blown into thick dunes by wind, the fertility
declined and after about 200 years of occupation the region was abandoned to its previous
state.

Young and mature volcanoes posses most of the geographical attributes of rugged mountains
of any sort. Steep slopes prevent extensive agriculture, although providin valuable timber
resources. Thus the San Francisco Mountains, a group of maturely dissected volcanoes in
northern Arizona, are clothed in what it perhaps the finest known western yellow pine forest.

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A lumber industry centered about the towns of Flagstaff and Williams has flourished for
many years.

As scenic features of great beauty, attracting a heavy tourist trade, few landforms outrank
volcanoes. National parks have been made of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Lassen, and Crater Lake in the
Cascade Range. Mt. Vesuvius and Fujiyama also attract many visitors.

Mineral resources, particularly the metallic ores, are conspicuously lacking in volcanoes and
lava flows, unless later geologic events have resulted in the injection or diffusion of ore
minerals into the volcanic rock. The gas-bubble cavities in some ancient lavas have become
filled with copper or other ores. The famed kimberlite rock of South Africa, source of
diamonds, is the pipe of an ancient volcano.

As a source of crushed rock for concrete aggregate or railroad ballast, and other engineering
purposes, lava rock is often extensively uses. Thus the ancient lava layers that make up the
Watchung ridges of northern New Jersey have in places been virtually leveled in quarrying
operations continued over several decades.