Where is the most common place for shield volcanoes to be found?
Sara
Poremski
Hi Sara,
The most common place to find shield volcanoes is over hotspots (such as
Hawai'i, the Galapagos, etc.). This is because hotspot magmas are almost
always hot basalts and therefore the erupted lavas have low viscosities. Low
viscosity lavas cannot be piled up very steeply so they form shield
volcanoes.
Subduction-zone magmas are almost always cooler and they are higher in
silica, both qualities that make the lavas more viscous. These magmas
are able to pile up into steep domes and additionally make the volcanoes
more explosive so that they have a greater percentage of ash. This makes
the volcanoes steep strato-cones instead of shields. It isn't impossible
to find shield volcanoes along lines of arc volcanoes (for example Masaya
in Nicaragua), but it is rare.
Good question,
Scott Rowland
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