How Safe Are We From Active Volcanoes Forming In Australia? by Liz

When was the last eruption on Australia's mainland?

Lizzzy — 2014-05-26 10:56:14 UTC

Mt Gambier 4,500 years ago. Its a shield volcano and is Austrlia's latest eruptor which is actually in Australia's mainland. You may of noticed it is near a lot of other volcanoes, this area is called the 'The Newer Volcanics Province' in southwestern Victoria.

Key

Lizzzy — 2014-05-26 10:57:57 UTC

Pink Circle - Earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 & above, 1890 to 2004

Blue Circle - All Earthquakes

Red Triangle - Volcano

A shield volcano is broad and has a slow incline, like so;

Volcanoes in Australia

Lizzzy — 2014-05-29 09:05:17 UTC

67 in Australia, meaning the land Australia owns, not just the mainland.

Australian Islands - 5

These are the only active volcanoes in Australia..

Heard Island and McDonald Island Volcano.

Northern NSW - 10

South Australia - 2

North Queensland - 8

Victoria - 13

Central and Sourthern NSW - 14

Central Queensland - 10

Pacific Ocean - 1

Tasmania - 6

Torres Strait - 1

Sourthern Queensland - 6

Tasman Sea - 1

For more information on all the volcanoes in Australia, go here:

Elizabeth Mellor, 9 Yellow

Lizzzy — 2014-05-29 09:56:46 UTC

Hi! This 'Padlet' gives an in-depth answer to 'How safe are we from active volcanoes forming in Australia'

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How A Volcano is formed in a.. GIF

Lizzzy — 2014-05-29 10:26:16 UTC

How A Volcano is formed in.. words

Lizzzy — 2014-05-29 10:27:47 UTC

The two tectonic plates both diverge, one overrides, the other sinks down and melts because the magma is so hot, 700-1300 degrees celcius. This pressure pushes up the magma and it spills out onto the earth's surface, now it is lava. The lava cools down becoming rock, such as pumice.

Australia's Tectonic Plate Movement

Lizzzy — 2014-05-31 06:17:14 UTC

This quote explains why plate tectonics move.

"Tectonic plates move because they are floating on top of the liquid mantle. The mantle itself moves due to convection currents: hot rock rises, gives off some heat, then falls. This creates vast swirls of moving liquid rock under the crust of the earth, which jostles the plates of crust on top." (J.Engel, 7 March 2012, http://www.quora.com/Why-do-tectonic-plates-move )

This shows Australia's movement due to the Plate Tectonic movement. The move took 225 million years! Australia was part of the super continent, Gondwana. As shown by a Gif (made by me)

When was the formation of Australia's Volcanoes

Lizzzy — 2014-06-05 04:51:01 UTC

Due to the fact that we've had all the neccesary conditions for a volcano to form for as long as the earth has been orbitting around the sun, some of our volcanoes could be bilions of years old. For example, Heard Island Volcanoes; Big Ben and Mt Dixon are considered 'modern volcanoes' ... they both formed a few million years ago!

Faultlines.

Lizzzy — 2014-06-05 05:02:28 UTC

'Faultline' refers to a break or fracture on the lithosphere. They are caused by a shift of tectonic plates. These shifts include, divergent plate boundary, convergent plate boundary and transform plate boundary.

Notice how the faultlines are near mountainous areas in Austrlia such as Uluru.

Will there be another volcano formation or even a Super Volcano?

Lizzzy — 2014-06-05 09:41:01 UTC

"Scientists have confirmed that two continent-sized blobs of partially melted rock are converging in the pacific, and look set to create a massive new volcano." (A. Convoy and M. Thorne, 12 February 2013, http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/part-2-extinction-level-supervolcano-growing-in-the-pacific/ )

The converging is happening roughly 2900 kilometres beneath the Pacific ocean. The result of a volcano forming is an eruption. A super-volcano eruption would have the power to kill us all in two ways, it could be a one massive eruption or a thousand year basalt eruption.

Luckily the process is slow, it shouldn't happen for another 100 million years!

____

Lizzzy — 2014-06-06 04:17:42 UTC

Convergent Plate Boundary

Lizzzy — 2014-06-11 11:29:27 UTC

Continental plates colliding creates mountains. A continenetal plate colliding with an oceanic plate, the oceanic plate sinks as it is more dense.

When was Australia's last eruption?

Lizzzy — 2014-06-12 00:27:54 UTC

While you were enjoying New Year 2014, Heard Island's active volcano named Big Ben was erupting. This was Australia's latest eruption.

However, Heard Island is a tiny, remote uninhabited island, it lay dormant for 75,000 years before erupting in 1992. Then it was sighted erupting again in 1996-97, 2001 and 2004-05. It is classified as a Stratovolcano.

Divergent Plate Boundary

Lizzzy — 2014-06-12 10:55:11 UTC

Plates pulling apart. Generally occurs under oceans and is called sea floor spreading. Also found where a continent is being pulled apart.

Transform Plate Boundary

Lizzzy — 2014-06-12 10:55:30 UTC

When continental plates slide against each other. This boundary causes earthquakes.

Formation of Australia's Volcanoes

Lizzzy — 2014-06-15 01:02:42 UTC

The mantle and the core of the Earth was still hot, from the Earth forming 4-6 billion years ago and the heat of this massive formation was trapped in the earth, the heat is enough to melt most of the elements that make rock (proving that magma isn't just molten rock). Now there is magma, let's assume its basalt magma, the most common type of magma. Soon after this magma has formed it works it's way up ward, the density of basalt magma is less than solid rock, soon there's a good flow of basalt magma. It advances to the Earth's surface, there is now a Volcano. Upon the Earth's surface basalt magma is known as basalt lava.

Lizzzy — 2014-06-16 02:36:32 UTC

I conclusion due tothe fact an Austrlia hasn't had a formed active volcano for years, the last eruption on mainland was 4,500 years ago nad that the super volcano isn't forming until 100 million years, Australia is very safe from Volcanoes.

Lizzzy — 2014-06-19 04:31:45 UTC