Volcanoes have fascinated me for just about as long as I can remember. The molten lava shooting in the air, the gigantic explosions that sometimes accompany an eruption, formation of new islands, and other aspects of volcanoes all wrapped up into one study, Vulcanism. I am going to use this paper to ask my self a serious question, is Vulcanism a career that I truly wish to pursue. As of now, I honestly don't know too many facts about volcanoes, but hopefully I will uncover some during my research that will help me to better understand this profession. .
I started off by heading to the undergrad library where I got some helpful information from a reference desk clerk as to where I should start my search. She introduced me to the school's wide array of online databases. I entered vulcanism into the subject box and off I was. There is a plethora of information regarding vulcanism, so I sorted through the sources and determined, with the best of my ability, which ones were credible and which ones were simply a well designed website with not too many facts. One source I stumbled upon, Volcano World, contained the most useful information for my search. This website contains information ranging from volcanic mineral deposits to the different types of volcanoes.
The two main types of volcanoes are shield volcanoes and strato volcanoes. Shield volcanoes are characterized by their very fluid lava and their shape which is not very steep due to the fact that liquids don't pile up very well (Volcano World). Shield volcanoes would have the greatest interest to me do to the fact that they usually only have passive eruptions that don't pose that big of a threat to those who are near it. The eruptions are somewhat predictable and when the eruption occurs, people have time to evacuate the area and let the lava flow with no harm done to human life. The Hawaiian string of volcanoes is all shield volcanoes which have be forming the Hawaiian Islands for millions of years now.