I visited the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. Located in the southeastern part of Hawaii, Kilauea is the youngest volcano on the island. Not being the only volcano on the islands, Kilauea and many of Hawaii's volcanoes were formed in the middle of the Pacific Plate and rose from the ground through a hot spot. This is interesting because hot spots do not form from Earth's moving tectonic plates. Instead, heat from Earth's mantle moves up through the lithosphere and eventually makes it way up to the Earth's crust. Magma then reaches Earth's surface through cracks in the crust which form volcanoes like Kilauea and many others in Hawaii (National Geographic Society, 2012).
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| Stream of lava from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō flowing through the forest in the Royal Gardens subdivision, February 28, 2008. USGS.gov |
It is clearly evident that Kilauea has erupted before as it is an active volcano. Aside from it being active, there are visible basalt formations around the landscape of the volcano which form through the cooling of magma. Based on the basalt formations, it also can be inferred that the eruptions were slow-flowing. The formations help prove that streams of magma have flowed through the lands.
As mentioned earlier, Kilauea is an active volcano so the land surrounding it is a hazard to people as an eruption of hot magma is likely to happen.
References
National Geographic Society. (2012, October 09). Hot Spot Volcanism. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/hot-spot-volcanism/#:~:text=A hot spot is a,the crust to form volcanoes.&text=Instead it occurs at abnormally hot centers known as mantle plumes.
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