10 Facts About the World's Weirdest Volcanoes
Volcanoes are amazing portals into the living interior of Earth. They spew lava, rock, gases, and sometimes even crystals.
They also make sunsets more vibrant. Volcanoes can create a variety of strange and fascinating phenomena, but some are more interesting than others.
For example, Tanzania's Mountain of God erupts lava so cool that it actually flows like water. This natron carbonate lava is known as the most unusual volcano in the world.
1. The Mountain of God
In the Bible, God often met people in unique places and made or renewed covenants with them there. One of these special places was Mount Sinai, also known as Horeb. On this sacred desert mountain, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and His holy laws.
It was also where Abraham bound his son Isaac for sacrifice and where Solomon built God’s temple. And later, the mountain was renamed Mount Zion.
In this somber dark fantasy/horror-themed platformer, you must climb ancient towers to reach an age-old mountain god and plead with him to resurrect your beloved. Collect “hearts” along the way to earn his favor and bring back your love.
2. Popocatepetl & Iztaccihuatl
One of the most famous stories in Aztec history involves the warrior Popocatepetl and his love Iztaccihuatl. Popocatepetl was ordered to go fight a war by the emperor but promised Iztaccihuatl that he would return triumphantly. While he was away fighting the war a rival warrior told Iztaccihuatl a lie and said that her beloved had died in battle. She believed it and she fell so deeply into sadness that she died of a broken heart.
Popocatepetl, or 'Smoking Mountain,' is located in Mexico's Cordillera Neo-Volcanica and is one of the country's most active volcanoes. It is capped by permanent glaciers and reaches a height of more than 17,000 feet (5,400 m). Iztaccihuatl (Nahuatl for 'white woman') lies north of Popocatepetl and is named after its snowy profile that from the air resembles a recumbent woman with her hands on her face.
3. Lake Taupo
The tidy lakeside town of Taupo is surrounded by a geological marvel that once spewed fiery lava into the stratosphere, darkening skies around the globe. Today, the lake is serene and popular with trout fishers, paddlers and water sport enthusiasts.
But if you visit the Craters of the Moon, the volcanic park that surrounds the lake, you can see evidence of its fiery past in the form of steaming craters and boiling mud pools. You can also hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, an epic 19-kilometer trail that passes by a smattering of volcanic peaks and a roaring cascade called Huka Falls.
The Oruanui eruption that created the lake was a true super-volcanic event. It rated eight on the VEI scale, which measures the size of the eruption. That makes it about a hundred-fold more powerful than the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius that obliterated Pompeii and the 1991 eruption of Krakatau that caused destruction across Asia.
4. Emi Koussi
In this month’s Image of the Day, Copernicus Sentinel-2B reveals the pyroclastic shield volcano Emi Koussi in northern Chad. It is the highest peak in the Tibesti Mountains and the highest mountain in the Sahara, whose summit reaches 3,415 metres above the surrounding sandstone plains.
The summit features three calderas, or depressions, that were formed by powerful eruptions. Two older and overlapping calderas form a large depression surrounded by a distinctive rim, with the youngest and smallest caldera, Era Kohor, thought to have formed because of eruptive activity within the past 2 million years.
The dark volcanic rocks of Emi Koussi provide a striking contrast to the tan and light brown sandstone of the Tibesti Mountains that surround it. The massif is active, with fumaroles and hot springs found on its southern flanks. The area is also rich in natural resources, including gold and uranium.
5. The Maleo Bird
The Maleo bird is a rare endemic to Indonesian beaches. British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace wrote that Sulawesi beaches were once teeming with these sand-digging birds, but habitat destruction and excessive egg harvest have contributed to their steep decline.
These ancient birds are unique because they don't fly and bury their eggs in the sand where geothermal heat incubates them. Their eggs are also 5 times the size of a chicken's.
As a result, they are a favorite target of poachers. However, NGO-community partnerships are showing promise in protecting these birds. At Libuun, a nesting site that once hosted dozens of maleos, a population boom was observed in 2018, twelve years after poaching ended. Similar results were seen at Kaumosongi, and in Teku/Teku in 2019 (Summers, 2020). These gains are due to the great sense of pride Tompotika villagers take in their conservation efforts.
6. Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa is a massive shield volcano that dominates the island of Hawai'i. Its land area takes up over half of the island and its weight depresses the ocean floor beneath it.
It's also the heaviest active volcano in the world and its eruptions have had devastating impacts on native Hawaiian communities. A 1935 eruption spewed a blanket of lava over the town of Hilo, and in 1950 a lava flow from the volcano covered and destroyed villages.
The mountain is a composite volcano, with broad flanks that look like a warrior's shield and are referred to as shield volcanoes. Its slopes never rise steeper than 12° and the summit is covered by an oval depression called Mokuaweoweo caldera. The volcano is part of a club that includes Washington's Mount Rainier and Sicily's Mount Etna, all of which erupt often.
7. Pumice
Pumice is a foam-like volcanic rock that forms when super-heated, highly-pressured lava is violently ejected from a volcano. Its light weight is due to air spaces, created when the lava loses pressure as it cools (like when you open a carbonated drink and bubbles appear).
Pumice can be found in lava flows, as well as at the base of a pyroclastic flow. Its porosity makes it useful for landscaping and the horticulture industry, which use it to aerate soils and increase water retention.
The pores in pumice are known as vesicles and can be roughly spherical or tubular. Large rafts of pumice have been observed in the ocean, often after a volcano eruption. The rafts support marine life and can drift for years before they sink. These rafts can also contain other igneous rocks such as trachyte, andesite, and basalt.
8. Ol Doinyo Lengai
Ol Doinyo Lengai, aka the Mountain of God to the Maasai tribe, is one of the most fascinating volcanoes on earth. Located in the Great Rift Valley, this Tanzanian volcano is unique because it is the only active volcanic peak known to erupt carbonatite lava.
This unusual lava has a low silica content, which means that it is much more fluid than other types of molten rock. It can change from black to snow-like white within days, due to chemical reactions with rainwater and moisture in the air.
Visitors can climb to the top of the mountain, but this is a dangerous and difficult task. It is best to leave this hike to the experienced, as a fall from the summit can be deadly. You can also take a guided tour of the volcanic crater lake, Lake Natron, which is extremely alkaline and full of salt.
9. The Aztecs
The Mountain of God in Tanzania (its name means 'Mountain of God' in the local language) is a contender for weirdest volcano, because it's the only active one to erupt carbonatite. Unlike most volcanic eruptions, which release silica-based lava, the lava here is mainly composed of sodium, calcium and CO2.
Volcanoes are dangerous because they can produce hot, fast-moving flows of gas, ash and rock called pyroclastic. These 'hot-puddles' are the main reason people have been killed by volcanic eruptions throughout history, including the ones that destroyed the ancient cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii.
The tallest volcano in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars, which is a shield volcano that rises to an enormous height of nearly 22 km, three times as high as Mount Everest. The planet's lack of plate tectonics allows Olympus Mons to grow so big.
10. NASA
The scientists at NASA are always keeping tabs on volcanoes, even those on other planets. The tallest volcano in our solar system is on Mars and is called Olympus Mons.
Volcanoes can be very dangerous to people who venture too close. They can spit out rock, lava, ash, hot water, poisonous gas and earthquakes. They can also cause tsunamis, avalanches, and other disasters.
One of the weirdest things about the Mountain of God is that its lava doesn’t get as hot as typical magma. This is because it is made of natron carbonate instead of silica. The lava is also thinner than normal magma.
