Volcano type

Lava domes

Mounds of very viscous lava that piles up over the vent instead of flowing away – and can collapse violently.

A lava dome grows when lava is so thick that it accumulates over the vent like toothpaste squeezed from a tube. A growing dome can be unstable: pieces break off and fall as hot avalanches – pyroclastic flows – or the whole dome explodes under gas pressure. Domes also form in the craters of stratovolcanoes such as Merapi or Mount St. Helens.

Volcanoes

31

Confirmed eruptions

162