b) Mauna Loa is one of the 5 overlapping shield volcanoes that comprise the Big Island of Hawaii.
Mauna Loa formed from the accumulation of this basaltic lava flows averaging a few meters thick .
intermixed with small amounts of pyroclastic ejecta. It is over 9 km high, making it higher than .
Mt. Everest. It is composed of basaltic rock and has an 80,000 cubic km volume which began to .
develop approximately one million years ago. Mauna Loa consists of gentle slopes at small .
degrees, this is because very hot, fluid lava flows at a rapid rate far distances from the vent.
2) ParÃcutin, cinder cone.
a) Latitude: 1929'28.72"N, Longitude: 10215'1.94"W.
b) ParÃcutin is a cinder cone volcano that has been studied since its very beginning. In 1943, a .
series of Earth tremors occurred in its area because of apprehension. The tremors were followed .
by the release of sulfurous gases from the depression where Paricutin now is. Hot, pyroclastic .
fragments and ash would eject from the vent. The fragments would then begin to harden during .
their flights with the larger fragments landing closer to the crater and some remaining .
incandescent as the rolled down the forming slope. This resulted in the development of a cone, .
which grew to 40 m by day one and exceeded 100 m by day five. The first lava flow at this .
location originated from a fissure that opened north of the cone. A few months later, the lava .
flow started to emerge from the base of the cone itself. The intermittent explosions of .
pyroclastic materials and continuous lava discharge from the base and vents ceased after nine .
years. It will not erupt again. There is a large crater at the top of Pericutin where material .
was ejected from the central vent.
3) Yellowstone Caldera.
a) Latitude: 4423'55.82"N, Longitude: 11041'58.67"W; Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
b) 1000 cubic km of pyroclastic material erupted 630,000 years ago.
History The first European explorer to encounter Costa Rica was the Great Navigator himself, Christopher Columbus. The day was September 18, 1502, and Columbus was making his fourth and final voyage to the New World. As he was setting anchor off shore, a crowd of local Carib Indians paddled out in...
