| Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the world's most famous | | | | plates, which are called fault lines. This also explains |
| volcanoes. | | | | why volcanoes usually occur in ranges - the |
| Volcanoes, as everyone knows, are mountains that | | | | Kilimanjaro, as a free-standing volcano, is very much |
| explode every once in a while, causing untold | | | | the exception. |
| devastation... and then dying down again for | | | | However, tectonic plates move for some time, and |
| thousands of years. | | | | then tend to settle down after a few hundred |
| You have to wonder - how do these mountains get | | | | thousand years. Right now, the tectonic activity has |
| formed? Why do they explode? Why do they have | | | | settled down enough to make the Kilimanjaro |
| craters on top? Most importantly - will the Kilimanjaro | | | | dormant for longer than man has tracked it. Scientists |
| explode while I'm on it? | | | | say that there is volcanic activity going on beneath |
| So many questions. But worry not, here are the | | | | the surface, but even they are more interested in |
| answers. | | | | the shrinking icecaps at its peak than the rumblings |
| First of all, the Kilimanjaro is not likely to erupt while | | | | and bubblings within. Mount Kilimanjaro has been firmly |
| you are on it, as it hasn't exploded in at least 150,000 | | | | placed in the category of "dormant volcano" - one |
| years. Right now, scientists are more concerned with | | | | that shows some activity, but will not erupt in the |
| the rapidly dissolving glaciers on the Kilimanjaro's peak | | | | foreseeable future. |
| than the possibility of a volcanic eruption from its | | | | According to its structure, Mount Kilimanjaro is what |
| core. | | | | is called a stratovolcano - "strato" referring to the |
| However, the Kilimanjaro must have been an | | | | layered structure of the volcanic mound. A |
| extremely active volcano to have reached the size it | | | | stratovolcano is the tall, steep volcanic mountain we |
| is at now - standing 4600 meters above its base, | | | | associate with the image of a volcano, as opposed |
| and with a peak height of 5832 meters. | | | | to the lower, wider structure of shield volcanoes. The |
| Volcanoes originated when the mass of liquid that | | | | difference in shape comes about due to the high |
| formed the earth slowly began to solidify on the | | | | viscosity of lava in stratovolcanoes as compared to |
| surface. This is what gave birth to what we call "land" | | | | shield volcanoes. |
| now. Land, however, was not continuous, and still is | | | | Highly viscous material cannot flow very far before it |
| not so. The surface of the earth is divided into plates | | | | solidifies, so it solidifies close to the volcano's mouth. |
| that rub against each other, and - just like using | | | | With every eruption, more and more solidified lava is |
| friction to strike a match - causes explosions | | | | added to the volcano's body, making it slowly grow in |
| whenever the force of this rubbing gets to be too | | | | size and height. As eruptions do not happen |
| much. The molten rock beneath the earth breaks | | | | continually, the lava of two successive eruptions will |
| through to the surface, and there we have a volcanic | | | | always look slightly different to the eye - which is |
| eruption. | | | | what gives cross-sections of volcanic rock the |
| Volcanic belts occur at the borders between tectonic | | | | distinctive "layered" appearance. |