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A branch of physics that studies atoms as isolated systems of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Compare nuclear physics. atomic structure atomic weight (A) The sum total of protons (or electrons) and neutrons within an atom. audio frequency A periodic vibration whose frequency is in the band audible to the average human, the human hearing range.
Augustine Volcano (Alaska) during its eruptive phase on January 24, 2006. A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging, and because most of Earth's plate boundaries are underwater, most volcanoes are found underwater. For example, a mid-ocean ridge , such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge , has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has ...
Volcanoes are usually mountains (sometimes islands, lakes, plateaus, calderas, seamounts or lava domes) that are formed when magma (liquid rock) wells up from inside the Earth. There are also analogous formations away from the Earth. Many volcanoes are categorized both as volcanoes and other landforms, such as mountains (if qualified).
Volcanoes, he said, were formed where the rays of the sun pierced the earth. The volcanoes of southern Italy attracted naturalists ever since the Renaissance led to the rediscovery of Classical descriptions of them by wtiters like Lucretius and Strabo. Vesuvius, Stromboli and Vulcano provided an opportunity to study the nature of volcanic ...
Plinian eruption: 1: ash plume; 2: magma conduit; 3: volcanic ash fall; 4: layers of lava and ash; 5: stratum; 6: magma chamber 1822 artist's impression of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, depicting what the AD 79 eruption may have looked like, by the English geologist George Julius Poulett Scrope.
World map of active volcanoes and plate boundaries Kīlauea's lava entering the sea Lava flows at Holuhraun, Iceland, September 2014. An active volcano is a volcano that has erupted during the Holocene (the current geologic epoch that began approximately 11,700 years ago), is currently erupting, or has the potential to erupt in the future. [1]
A fumarole (or fumerole) [1] is a vent in the surface of the Earth or another rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcanic activity , but fumarole activity can also precede a volcanic eruption and has been used for ...