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93 free volcanoes trivia questions with answers. From the devastating eruption of Vesuvius that buried Pompeii to the simmering supervolcano beneath Yellowstone, volcanoes have shaped our planet's landscape, climate, and history. This quiz covers 93 questions spanning famous eruptions, volcano types, the Ring of Fire, volcanic hazards, submarine volcanoes, and the geology of how these fiery mountains form and erupt.
30 of 93 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is molten rock called once it has erupted and is flowing across the ground away from a volcano?
Lava
Lava is magma that has reached the surface; runny basalt lava can flow for miles, while sticky lava piles up into domes and explosive eruptions.
Q 02Which Roman city was buried under ash and pumice when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, then lost for nearly 1,700 years?
Pompeii
Pompeii was rediscovered in 1748, and plaster poured into cavities in the ash revealed the shapes of the dead; neighbouring Herculaneum was buried the same day.
Q 03The Ring of Fire is a horseshoe-shaped zone of volcanic and seismic activity surrounding which ocean?
Pacific Ocean
The Ring of Fire encircles the Pacific Ocean and is home to about 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. It stretches from New Zealand through Southeast Asia, Japan, Alaska, and down the western coasts of North and South America.
Q 04Which volcano towers over the Bay of Naples?
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius rises about 1,280 metres over the Bay of Naples and last erupted in March 1944, when lava destroyed the villages of San Sebastiano and Massa di Somma during the Allied occupation.
Q 05Which Hawaiian volcano is the largest active volcano on Earth by volume?
Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa holds some 75,000 cubic kilometres of rock, yet Mauna Kea next door is slightly taller; it was considered the largest volcano on Earth until the underwater Tamu Massif was found.
Q 06Which type of volcano has broad, gently sloping sides built up by runny lava flows, like the Hawaiian volcanoes?
Shield volcano
Shield volcanoes look like a warrior's shield laid on the ground; they are built from fluid basalt that runs far before it cools, which is why the Hawaiian ones are so wide.
Q 07Mount St. Helens blew its top on May 18, 1980, killing 57 people, in which US state?
Washington
Washington's Mount St. Helens lost 1,300 feet of height in the deadliest eruption in US history; it was set off by the largest landslide ever recorded.
Q 08Which 0-to-8 scale, devised in 1982, rates eruptions much as the Richter scale rates quakes?
Volcanic Explosivity Index
The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) measures the explosiveness of volcanic eruptions on a scale from 0 to 8. It was devised in 1982 and considers the volume of erupted material, eruption cloud height, and other factors.
Q 09Which volcanic rock is so full of gas bubbles that it floats, sometimes forming rafts miles wide at sea?
Pumice
Pumice is frothy lava frozen mid-foam; in 2006 a yacht crew near Tonga sailed into a pumice raft many miles wide, and the stone is what you scrub your heels with.
Q 10Which country has the most volcanoes that have erupted in recorded history?
Indonesia
Indonesia has around 76 volcanoes with eruptions in recorded history, more than any other country; the US Geological Survey ranks Japan second and the United States third.
Q 11What is the bowl-shaped hollow at a volcano's summit called, the one you picture lava bubbling inside?
Crater
A crater is the summit bowl, usually less than a kilometre across; a caldera is the much larger depression left when a volcano collapses into its emptied magma chamber.
Q 12What is a fast-moving avalanche of hot gas, ash and rock racing down a volcano's flank called, the thing that killed Pompeii?
Pyroclastic flow
A pyroclastic flow can move at up to 700 km/h and 700°C, which is why nobody outruns one; pyroclastic surges, not lava, killed most of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Q 13The volcanic island of Iceland sits on top of which mid-ocean ridge?
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Q 21Crater Lake in Oregon was formed by the collapse of which ancient volcano approximately 7,700 years ago?
Mount Mazama
Crater Lake occupies the caldera formed by the collapse of Mount Mazama after a massive eruption about 7,700 years ago. At 1,943 feet (592 meters) deep, it is the deepest lake in the United States.
Q 22What type of lava has a smooth, ropy surface and is named with a Hawaiian word?
Pahoehoe
Pahoehoe is a type of basaltic lava characterized by its smooth, billowy, or ropy surface. The name comes from the Hawaiian language. In contrast, a'a lava has a rough, jagged surface. Both terms are used worldwide by geologists.
Q 23By roughly how much did the 1991 Philippine eruption's sulfuric haze lower worldwide temperatures?
0.5°C
Iceland sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. This makes Iceland one of the most volcanically active places on Earth, with eruptions occurring every few years on average.
Q 14What steep-sided volcano type, layered from lava and ash, is also called a stratovolcano?
Composite volcano
Composite volcanoes (stratovolcanoes) are tall, steep-sided cones built from alternating layers of lava flows, volcanic ash, and other debris. Famous examples include Mount Fuji, Mount Vesuvius, and Mount St. Helens.
Q 15What is a lahar?
A mudflow composed of volcanic debris and water
A lahar is a destructive mudflow or debris flow composed of volcanic material and water. Lahars can travel at speeds over 60 mph and can occur during or long after an eruption when heavy rain mobilizes loose volcanic deposits.
Q 16Which tectonic process creates volcanoes when one plate slides beneath another?
Subduction
Subduction occurs when one tectonic plate is forced beneath another. As the descending plate sinks into the mantle, it releases water that lowers the melting point of the overlying rock, creating magma that rises to form volcanoes.
Q 17What is the name for a volcano that has not erupted in a long time but is expected to erupt again?
Dormant
A dormant volcano is one that has not erupted recently but is considered capable of erupting again in the future. An active volcano erupts regularly, while an extinct volcano is not expected to ever erupt again.
Q 18Mount Fuji, the snow-capped cone in countless woodblock prints, is the tallest peak of which country?
Japan
Japan's Mount Fuji stands 3,776 metres on Honshu and last erupted in 1707; it is one of the country's three sacred mountains, and hundreds of thousands climb it each summer.
Q 19Which 1815 Indonesian eruption, the most powerful on record, caused 1816's 'Year Without a Summer'?
Mount Tambora
The April 1815 eruption was rated VEI-7, the most powerful in recorded history. It ejected so much ash and sulfur dioxide that global temperatures dropped, causing crop failures and famine across Europe and North America in 1816.
Q 20What is the general term for all solid material ejected from a volcano during an eruption?
Tephra
Tephra is the general term for all fragments of rock and solidified lava ejected into the air during a volcanic eruption. It ranges in size from fine ash (less than 2mm) to large volcanic bombs (over 64mm).
It was the second-largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century. In the months that followed, aerosols formed a global haze layer and worldwide temperatures fell by about 0.5 degrees C (0.9 degrees F) across 1991 to 1993.
Q 24Which volcano is the most active in Antarctica?
Mount Erebus
Mount Erebus, 3,794 metres high on Ross Island, is Antarctica's most active volcano and has held a persistent lava lake since at least 1972.
Q 25Which volcanic Mediterranean island may have inspired the legend of Atlantis?
Santorini (Thera)
Santorini (Thera) blew apart around 1600 BC in one of the largest eruptions of the past 10,000 years, leaving a flooded caldera; the drowned Bronze Age island is often linked to Plato's Atlantis.
Q 26What is a line of volcanic islands formed as a plate drifts over a fixed mantle plume called?
Hotspot track
A hotspot track such as the Hawaiian–Emperor chain forms as a plate drifts over a fixed mantle plume; John Tuzo Wilson proposed the idea in 1963. A volcanic arc instead forms above a subduction zone.
Q 27What type of small, steep-sided volcano is built almost entirely from loose fragments like cinders and ash?
Cinder cone
The simplest volcano: congealed lava bits piled around a single vent, rarely above 300 metres, often on the flank of a bigger volcano. Parícutin in Mexico is the textbook case.
Q 28Which gas is most abundant in volcanic emissions, typically making up over 60% of volcanic gases?
Water vapor
Water vapour is consistently the most abundant volcanic gas, normally making up more than 60 per cent of total emissions.
Q 29What is the name of the volcanic phenomenon where lightning occurs within an eruption column?
Dirty thunderstorm
A dirty thunderstorm (also called volcanic lightning) occurs when lightning is produced within a volcanic eruption plume. The phenomenon is caused by the collision of charged ash particles, rock fragments, and ice crystals within the turbulent eruption column.
Q 30Which Caribbean volcano destroyed Saint-Pierre in 1902, killing about 30,000 people in minutes?
Mount Pelée
Mount Pelée on the island of Martinique erupted on May 8, 1902, sending a pyroclastic flow that obliterated the city of Saint-Pierre and killed approximately 30,000 people within minutes. Only two people in the city survived.