What is the relationship between volcanic activity and plate tectonics?

Answer 1

Imagine a big in-ground swimming pool in your backyard in the winter and it has frozen over. The ice is only a few inches thick, and lets say that this layer of ice is the Earth's 'crust'. All of the water beneath the ice is the 'mantle' which is molten magma. It's called lava when it reaches above ground in real life.

The ice has formed large cracks due to expansion. These cracks will be models for 'faultlines' which in real life are where the edges of tectonic plates meet. Constant pressure along these faultlines force ice upward in jagged patterns to create 'mountains.' To make this model look somewhat cool, we'll dye all the water under the ice orange -- like real magma. And we'll heat the water beneath the ice with a magic underwater heater like the way magma is super heated beneath the crust we walk upon every day.

The magma (water) beneath the crust (ice) expands, is now under pressure and needs some relief, so it finds the weakest point to escape -- the faultlines (cracks in the ice). Eventually the magma finds its way up, burst through a weak point in one of the mountains, and forms a volcano. In our little backyard model, it will look like a spurt of orange-dyed water coming up through one of the little ice mountains somewhere along a crack.

When and where it will happen in the frozen pool? Nobody knows.

Answer 2

Earth's floor is made up of tectonic plates, which pass and push against one yet another with super rigidity. As edges of those plates rub against one yet another, they vibrate. try gently working your fingernails alongside the exterior of a blackboard. you could or won't hear the signature "screech", and in case you press slightly extra stable, the screech develop into louder. The tectonic plates press very complicated, and whilst they slide alongside one yet another, the screech is louder and at an exceedingly low pitch: we experience it as an earthquake. because of the fact the tectonic plates are actual moving whilst those quakes are felt, your actually place interior the universe is right now moved, alongside with each little thing around you. some issues at the instant are not geared up to attend to this relocation nicely, so homes sway and issues fall over. cabinets could actually pass from under the products sitting on them, so the products fall. Volcanoes, warm springs and different organic geothermal consequences at the instant are not promptly concerning tectonic interest. those places coach interior reach weaknesses interior the Earth's crust. In places the place the crust is skinny or badly cracked from rigidity, the liquid magma interior the Earth's middle has an danger to upward thrust closer to the exterior than in many of the crust. the severe case is a volcano, which releases the magma (renamed lava whilst it breaches the exterior) and superheated gasses above the exterior and into the ambience or floor water (the sea or lakes). Tectonic interest could redefine the place the crust is vulnerable. circulation of the plates alters the rigidity varieties in each and each plate, so the interest point in each and each vulnerable spot can replace after each significant quake.

Answer 3

Plates moving apart make the earth's crust thin, and hot magma from the mantle pushes up (because it's under high pressure, think of it like a pimple) and out, creating a volcano.

Answer 4

The energy comes from the movement of the plates.