The preceding picture is Mount Marsili, one of Europe’s largest

underwater volcanoes. It is beneath the Tyrrhenian Sea. It

rises to an altitude of 9800 feet from the sea floor. It can cause large

tidal waves in Italy if there is a large eruption.

The preceding picture is the Yellowstone Supervolcano, located

in Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming. It is a huge

depression in the earth which measures about 34 by 45 miles.

Scientists believe it was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruption

in history.

The preceding picture is Mount Rainier. At 14,410 feet is it the tallest peak in the Cascade Range. It is magnificent

and snow-capped, and many of its slopes are very steep. Its load of glacier ice exceeds that of any other mountain in the contiguous United States. It has had explosive eruptions many times in

history and will erupt again. If and when it erupts, it could be potentially hazardous to thousands of people.

The preceding picture is Mauna Loa in Hawaii. It is the largest volcano on our

planet. Its flanks extend into the sea floor 5 kilometers and its summit is 56,000 feet above its base. This enormous volcano

covers half the island of Hawaii and by itself amounts to 85 percent of all the other

Hawaiian Islands combined. It is one of the earth’s most active volcanoes, having

erupted 33 times since 1843. The Hawaiian volcanoes erupt lava, which has built up

their very large bases.

The preceding picture is Table Rock in central Oregon. It started when

magma intruded into water and triggered explosive eruptions. Its cone rose and filled with a lava

lake. Later, however, erosion took away the sides of the crater, turning

what was a crater into a flat mountaintop.

The preceding picture is the Columbia Basin, which covers

much of southeastern and south central Washington. Its elevation is between 500 and 2000 feet above sea level. It was made from layers of cooled lava and is covered with

coulees (dry lake beds) and scablands (circular patches of lava).

Three weeks before the actual eruption, rumbling noises were heard that resembled thunder by people near Paricutin village, but were actually deep earthquakes.The volcano began in a cornfield owned by a farmer, Dionisio Pulido, on February 20, 1943. The

volcano grew quickly, reaching five stories tall in just a week, and it could be seen from afar in a month. Much of the volcano's growth occurred during its first year, while it was still in the

explosive pyroclastic phase. Two nearby were both buried in lava and ash; the residents relocated to vacant land nearby.

After roughly one year, the volcano had grown 336 metres tall. For the next eight years the volcano would continue erupting. In 1952

the eruption ended and Parícutin went quiet, attaining a final height of 1,391 feet from the cornfield where it began. The volcano has been quiet since. Like most cinder cones, It is

believed it will never erupt again.

The Aleutian islands are a group of about 300 islands. They are located

in Alaska and they just out in a curved shape into the Bering Sea. The tallest of the islands is 6200 feet high. Though the mountains are made mostly of cooled lava,

they also have significant amounts of other material like amber and

crystal.