Volcanic Cone - Spatter Cone

Spatter Cone

A spatter cone is formed of molten lava ejected from a vent somewhat like taffy. Expanding gases in the lava fountains tear the liquid rock into irregular gobs that fall back to earth, forming a heap around the vent. The still partly liquid rock splashes down and over the sides of the developing mound is called spatter. Because spatter is not fully solid when it lands, the individual deposits are very irregular in shape and weld together as they cool, and in this way particularly differ from cinder and ash. Spatter cones are typical of volcanoes with highly fluid magma, such as those found in the Hawaiian Islands. The spatter that builds up the cone can either be agglutinated or welded, the former meaning that the individual spatters pose one above each other with a lesser degree of welding occurring, while welded spatter is almost fluid when it lands and therefore welds easily.

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