GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Composite volcanoes are tall, symetrically shaped, with steep sides, sometimes rising 10, 000 feet high. They are built of alternating layers of lava flows, volcanic ash, and cinders.

Detailed explanation-2: -Stratovolcanoes, also called composite volcanoes, are typically steep-sided, symmetrical cones built of alternating layers of lava flows, volcanic ash, and other eruptive products (see animation courtesy of Exploring the Environment).

Detailed explanation-3: -Most shield volcanoes are formed from fluid, basaltic lava flows. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are shield volcanoes. They are the world’s largest active volcanoes, rising over 9 km above the sea floor around the island of Hawai’i.

Detailed explanation-4: -Composite cones experience many eruptions, as well as many different types of eruptions, during their history and evolution. Eruptions may be phreatic, phreatomagmatic, and magmatic. Phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions are especially common on snow-covered or glaciated peaks.