X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is a technique used for determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a three-dimensional picture of the density of electrons within the crystal. From this electron density, the mean positions of the atoms in the crystal can be determined, as well as their chemical bonds, their crystallographic disorder, various other information. Since many materials can form crystals—such as salts, minerals, semiconductors, as well as various inorganic and biological molecules—X-ray crystallography has been fundamental in the development of many scientific fields. In its first decades of use, this method determined the size of atoms, the lengths and types of chemical bonds, the atomic-scale differences among various materials minerals and alloys; the method revealed the structure and function of many biological molecules, including vitamins, drugs and nucleic acids such as DNA.
X-ray crystallography is still the primary method for characterizing the atomic structure of new materials and in discerning materials that appear similar by other experiments. X-ray crystal structures can account for unusual electronic or elastic properties of a material, shed light on chemical interactions and processes, or serve as the basis for designing pharmaceuticals against diseases. In a single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurement, a crystal is mounted on a goniometer; the goniometer is used to position the crystal at selected orientations. The crystal is illuminated with a finely focused monochromatic beam of X-rays, producing a diffraction pattern of spaced spots known as reflections; the two-dimensional images taken at different orientations are converted into a three-dimensional model of the density of electrons within the crystal using the mathematical method of Fourier transforms, combined with chemical data known for the sample. Poor resolution or errors may result if the crystals are too small, or not uniform enough in their internal makeup.
X-ray crystallography is related to several other methods for determining atomic structures. Similar diffraction patterns can be produced by scattering electrons or neutrons, which are interpreted by Fourier transformation. If single crystals of sufficient size cannot be obtained, various other X-ray methods can be applied to obtain less detailed information. If the material under investigation is only available in the form of nanocrystalline powders or suffers from poor crystallinity, the methods of electron crystallography can be applied for determining the atomic structure. For all above mentioned X-ray diffraction methods, the scattering is elastic. By contrast, inelastic X-ray scattering methods are useful in studying excitations of the sample such as plasmons, crystal-field and orbital excitations and phonons, rather than the distribution of its atoms. Crystals, though long admired for their regularity and symmetry, were not investigated scientifically until the 17th century. Johannes Kepler hypothesized in his work Strena seu de Nive Sexangula that the hexagonal symmetry of snowflake crystals was due to a regular packing of spherical water particles.
The Danish scientist Nicolas Steno pioneered experimental investigations of crystal symmetry. Steno showed that the angles between the faces are the same in every exemplar of a particular type of crystal, René Just Haüy discovered that every face of a crystal can be described by simple stacking patterns of blocks of the same shape and size. Hence, William Hallowes Miller in 1839 was able to give each face a unique label of three small integers, the Miller indices which remain in use today for identifying crystal faces. Haüy's study led to the correct idea that crystals are a regular three-dimensional array of atoms and molecules. In the 19th century, a complete catalog of the possible symmetries of a crystal was worked out by Johan Hessel, Auguste Bravais, Evgraf Fedorov, Arthur Schönflies and William Barlow. From the available data and physical reasoning, Barlow proposed several crystal structures in the 1880s that were validated by X-ray crystallography. Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895, just as the studies of crystal symmetry were being concluded.
Physicists were uncertain of the nature of X-rays, but soon suspected that they were waves of electromagnetic radiation—in other words, another form of light. At that time, the wave model of light—specifically, the Maxwell theory of electromagnetic radiation—was well accepted among scientists, experiments by Charles Glover Barkla showed that X-rays exhibited phenomena associated with electromagnetic waves, including transverse polarization and spectral lines akin to those observed in the visible wavelengths. Single-slit experiments in the laboratory of Arnold Sommerfeld suggested that X-rays had a wavelength of about 1 angstrom. However, X-rays are composed of photons, thus are not only waves of electromagnetic radiation but exhibit particle-like properties. Albert Einstein introduced the photon concept in 1905, but it was not broadly accepted until 1922, when Arthur
Obsidian
Obsidian is a occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock. Obsidian is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools with minimal crystal growth, it is found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows, where the chemical composition causes a high viscosity which, upon rapid cooling, forms a natural glass from the lava. The inhibition of atomic diffusion through this viscous lava explains the lack of crystal growth. Obsidian is hard and amorphous. In the past it was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades.... among the various forms of glass we may reckon Obsidian glass, a substance similar to the stone found by Obsidius in Ethiopia. The translation into English of Natural History written by Pliny the Elder of Rome shows a few sentences on the subject of a volcanic glass called obsidian, discovered in Ethiopia by Obsidius, a Roman explorer. Obsidian is the rock formed as a result of cooled lava, the parent material.
Extrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools at the edges of a felsic lava flow or volcanic dome or when lava cools during sudden contact with water or air. Intrusive formation of obsidian may occur. Tektites were once thought by many to be obsidian produced by lunar volcanic eruptions, though few scientists now adhere to this hypothesis. Obsidian is mineral-like, but not a true mineral, it is sometimes classified as a mineraloid. Though obsidian is dark in color, similar to mafic rocks such as basalt, obsidian's composition is felsic. Obsidian consists of SiO2 70% or more. Crystalline rocks with obsidian's composition include rhyolite; because obsidian is metastable at the Earth's surface, no obsidian has been found, older than Cretaceous age. This breakdown of obsidian is accelerated by the presence of water. Having a low water content when newly formed less than 1% water by weight, obsidian becomes progressively hydrated when exposed to groundwater, forming perlite. Pure obsidian is dark in appearance, though the color varies depending on the presence of impurities.
Iron and other transition elements may give the obsidian a dark brown to black color. Few samples are nearly colorless. In some stones, the inclusion of small, radially clustered crystals spherulites of the mineral cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern. Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow, aligned along layers created as the molten rock was flowing before being cooled; these bubbles can produce interesting effects such as a golden sheen. An iridescent, rainbow-like sheen is caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles. Obsidian can be found in locations, it can be found in Argentina, Azerbaijan, Canada, Georgia, Greece, El Salvador, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and the United States. Obsidian flows which may be hiked on are found within the calderas of Newberry Volcano and Medicine Lake Volcano in the Cascade Range of western North America, at Inyo Craters east of the Sierra Nevada in California.
Yellowstone National Park has a mountainside containing obsidian located between Mammoth Hot Springs and the Norris Geyser Basin, deposits can be found in many other western U. S. states including Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Washington and Idaho. Obsidian can be found in the eastern U. S. states of Virginia, as well as North Carolina. There are only four major deposit areas in the central Mediterranean: Lipari, Pantelleria and Monte Arci. Ancient sources in the Aegean were Gyali. Acıgöl town and the Göllü Dağ volcano were the most important sources in central Anatolia, one of the more important source areas in the prehistoric Near East; the first known archaeological evidence of usage was in Kariandusi and other sites of the Acheulian age dated 700,000 BC, although the number of objects found at these sites were low relative to the Neolithic. Use of obsidian in pottery of the Neolithic in the area around Lipari was found to be less at a distance representing two weeks journeying. Anatolian sources of obsidian are known to have been the material used in the Levant and modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan from a time beginning sometime about 12,500 BC.
The first attested civilized use is dated to the late fifth millennium BC, known from excavations at Tell Brak. Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint, it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads. Like all glass and some other types of occurring rocks, obsidian breaks with a characteristic conchoidal fracture, it was polished to create early mirrors. Modern archaeologists have developed a relative dating system, obsidian hydration dating, to calculate the age of obsidian artifacts. In the Ubaid in the 5th millennium BC, blades were manufactured from obsidian extracted from outcrops located in modern-day Turkey. Ancient Egyptians used obsidian imported from the eastern Mediterranean and southern Red Sea regions. Obsidian was used in ritual circumcisions because of its deftness and sharpness. In the eastern Mediterranean
Corrosion
Corrosion is a natural process, which converts a refined metal to a more chemically-stable form, such as its oxide, hydroxide, or sulfide. It is the gradual destruction of materials by chemical and/or electrochemical reaction with their environment. Corrosion engineering is the field dedicated to stopping corrosion. In the most common use of the word, this means electrochemical oxidation of metal in reaction with an oxidant such as oxygen or sulfates. Rusting, the formation of iron oxides, is a well-known example of electrochemical corrosion; this type of damage produces oxide or salt of the original metal, results in a distinctive orange colouration. Corrosion can occur in materials other than metals, such as ceramics or polymers, although in this context, the term "degradation" is more common. Corrosion degrades the useful properties of materials and structures including strength and permeability to liquids and gases. Many structural alloys corrode from exposure to moisture in air, but the process can be affected by exposure to certain substances.
Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit or crack, or it can extend across a wide area more or less uniformly corroding the surface. Because corrosion is a diffusion-controlled process, it occurs on exposed surfaces; as a result, methods to reduce the activity of the exposed surface, such as passivation and chromate conversion, can increase a material's corrosion resistance. However, some corrosion mechanisms are less predictable. Galvanic corrosion occurs when two different metals have physical or electrical contact with each other and are immersed in a common electrolyte, or when the same metal is exposed to electrolyte with different concentrations. In a galvanic couple, the more active metal corrodes at an accelerated rate and the more noble metal corrodes at a slower rate; when immersed separately, each metal corrodes at its own rate. What type of metal to use is determined by following the galvanic series. For example, zinc is used as a sacrificial anode for steel structures. Galvanic corrosion is of major interest to the marine industry and anywhere water contacts pipes or metal structures.
Factors such as relative size of anode, types of metal, operating conditions affect galvanic corrosion. The surface area ratio of the anode and cathode directly affects the corrosion rates of the materials. Galvanic corrosion is prevented by the use of sacrificial anodes. In any given environment, one metal will be either more noble or more active than others, based on how its ions are bound to the surface. Two metals in electrical contact share the same electrons, so that the "tug-of-war" at each surface is analogous to competition for free electrons between the two materials. Using the electrolyte as a host for the flow of ions in the same direction, the noble metal will take electrons from the active one; the resulting mass flow or electric current can be measured to establish a hierarchy of materials in the medium of interest. This hierarchy is useful in predicting and understanding corrosion, it is possible to chemically remove the products of corrosion. For example, phosphoric acid in the form of naval jelly is applied to ferrous tools or surfaces to remove rust.
Corrosion removal should not be confused with electropolishing, which removes some layers of the underlying metal to make a smooth surface. For example, phosphoric acid may be used to electropolish copper but it does this by removing copper, not the products of copper corrosion; some metals are more intrinsically resistant to corrosion than others. There are various ways of protecting metals from corrosion including painting, hot dip galvanizing, combinations of these; the materials most resistant to corrosion are those for which corrosion is thermodynamically unfavorable. Any corrosion products of gold or platinum tend to decompose spontaneously into pure metal, why these elements can be found in metallic form on Earth and have long been valued. More common "base" metals can only be protected by more temporary means; some metals have slow reaction kinetics though their corrosion is thermodynamically favorable. These include such metals as zinc and cadmium. While corrosion of these metals is continuous and ongoing, it happens at an acceptably slow rate.
An extreme example is graphite, which releases large amounts of energy upon oxidation, but has such slow kinetics that it is immune to electrochemical corrosion under normal conditions. Passivation refers to the spontaneous formation of an ultrathin film of corrosion products, known as a passive film, on the metal's surface that act as a barrier to further oxidation; the chemical composition and microstructure of a passive film are different from the underlying metal. Typical passive film thickness on aluminium, stainless steels, alloys is within 10 nanometers; the passive film is different from oxide layers that are formed upon heating and are in the micrometer thickness range – the passive film recovers if removed or damaged whereas the oxide layer does not. Passivation in natural environments such as air and soil at moderate pH is seen in such materials as aluminium, stainless steel and silicon. Passivation is determined by metallurgical and environmental factors; the effect of pH is summarized using Pourbaix diagrams.
Some conditions that inhibit passivation include high pH for aluminium and zinc, low pH or the p
Micrograph
A micrograph or photomicrograph is a photograph or digital image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an object. This is opposed to a macrograph or photomacrograph, an image, taken on a microscope but is only magnified less than 10 times. Micrography is the art of using microscopes to make photographs. A micrograph contains extensive details of microstructure. A wealth of information can be obtained from a simple micrograph like behavior of the material under different conditions, the phases found in the system, failure analysis, grain size estimation, elemental analysis and so on. Micrographs are used in all fields of microscopy. A light micrograph or photomicrograph is a micrograph prepared using an optical microscope, a process referred to as photomicroscopy. At a basic level, photomicroscopy may be performed by connecting a camera to a microscope, thereby enabling the user to take photographs at reasonably high magnification. Scientific use began in England in 1850 by Prof Richard Hill Norris FRSE for his studies of blood cells.
Roman Vishniac was a pioneer in the field of photomicroscopy, specializing in the photography of living creatures in full motion. He made major developments in light-interruption photography and color photomicroscopy. Photomicrographs may be obtained using a USB microscope attached directly to a home computer or laptop. An electron micrograph is a micrograph prepared using an electron microscope. Micrographs have micron bars, or magnification ratios, or both. Magnification is a ratio between the size of an object on its real size. Magnification can be a misleading parameter as it depends on the final size of a printed picture and therefore varies with picture size. A scale bar, or micron bar, is a line of known length displayed on a picture; the bar can be used for measurements on a picture. When the picture is resized the bar is resized making it possible to recalculate the magnification. Ideally, all pictures destined for publication/presentation should be supplied with a scale bar. All but one of the micrographs presented on this page do not have a micron bar.
The microscope has been used for scientific discovery. It has been linked to the arts since its invention in the 17th century. Early adopters of the microscope, such as Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, were excellent illustrators. After the invention of photography in the 1820s the microscope was combined with the camera to take pictures instead of relying on an artistic rendering. Since the early 1970s individuals have been using the microscope as an artistic instrument. Websites and traveling art exhibits such as the Nikon Small World and Olympus Bioscapes have featured a range of images for the sole purpose of artistic enjoyment; some collaborative groups, such as the Paper Project have incorporated microscopic imagery into tactile art pieces as well as 3D immersive rooms and dance performances. Close-up Digital microscope Macro photography Microphotograph Microscopy USB microscope Make a Micrograph – This presentation by the research department of Children's Hospital Boston shows how researchers create a three-color micrograph.
Shots with a Microscope – a basic, comprehensive guide to photomicrography Scientific photomicrographs – free scientific quality photomicrographs by Doc. RNDr. Josef Reischig, CSc. Micrographs of 18 natural fibres by the International Year of Natural Fibres 2009 Seeing Beyond the Human Eye Video produced by Off Book - Solomon C. Fuller bio Charles Krebs Microscopic Images Dennis Kunkel Microscopy Andrew Paul Leonard, APL Microscopic Cell Centered Database - Montage Nikon Small World Olympus Bioscapes Other examples
Precipitation (chemistry)
Precipitation is the creation of a solid from a solution. When the reaction occurs in a liquid solution, the solid formed is called the'precipitate'; the chemical that causes the solid to form is called the'precipitant'. Without sufficient force of gravity to bring the solid particles together, the precipitate remains in suspension. After sedimentation when using a centrifuge to press it into a compact mass, the precipitate may be referred to as a'pellet'. Precipitation can be used as a medium; the precipitate-free liquid remaining above the solid is called the'supernate' or'supernatant'. Powders derived from precipitation have historically been known as'flowers'; when the solid appears in the form of cellulose fibers which have been through chemical processing, the process is referred to as regeneration. Sometimes the formation of a precipitate indicates the occurrence of a chemical reaction. If silver nitrate solution is poured into a solution of sodium chloride, a chemical reaction occurs forming a white precipitate of silver chloride.
When potassium iodide solution reacts with lead nitrate solution, a yellow precipitate of lead iodide is formed. Precipitation may occur. Precipitation may occur from a supersaturated solution. In solids, precipitation occurs if the concentration of one solid is above the solubility limit in the host solid, due to e.g. rapid quenching or ion implantation, the temperature is high enough that diffusion can lead to segregation into precipitates. Precipitation in solids is used to synthesize nanoclusters. An important stage of the precipitation process is the onset of nucleation; the creation of a hypothetical solid particle includes the formation of an interface, which requires some energy based on the relative surface energy of the solid and the solution. If this energy is not available, no suitable nucleation surface is available, supersaturation occurs. Precipitation reactions can be used for making pigments, removing salts from water in water treatment, in classical qualitative inorganic analysis.
Precipitation is useful to isolate the products of a reaction during workup. Ideally, the product of the reaction is insoluble in the reaction solvent. Thus, it precipitates. An example of this would be the synthesis of porphyrins in refluxing propionic acid. By cooling the reaction mixture to room temperature, crystals of the porphyrin precipitate, are collected by filtration: Precipitation may occur when an antisolvent is added, drastically reducing the solubility of the desired product. Thereafter, the precipitate may be separated by filtration, decanting, or centrifugation. An example would be the synthesis of chromic tetraphenylporphyrin chloride: water is added to the DMF reaction solution, the product precipitates. Precipitation is useful in purifying products: crude bmim-Cl is taken up in acetonitrile, dropped into ethyl acetate, where it precipitates. Another important application of an antisolvent is in ethanol precipitation of DNA. In metallurgy, precipitation from a solid solution is a useful way to strengthen alloys.
An example of a precipitation reaction: Aqueous silver nitrate is added to a solution containing potassium chloride, the precipitation of a white solid, silver chloride, is observed. AgNO 3 + KCl ⟶ AgCl ↓ + KNO 3 The silver chloride has formed a solid, observed as a precipitate; this reaction can be written emphasizing the dissociated ions in a combined solution. This is known as the ionic equation. Ag + + NO 3 − + K + + Cl − ⟶ AgCl ↓ + K + + NO 3 − A final way to represent a precipitate reaction is known as a net ionic reaction. Many compounds containing metal ions produce precipitates with distinctive colors; the following are typical colors for various metals. However, many of these compounds can produce colors different from those listed. Other compounds form white precipitates. Precipitate formation is useful in the detection of the type of cation in a salt. To do this, an alkali first reacts with the unknown salt to produce a precipitate, the hydroxide of the unknown salt. To identify the cation, the color of the precipitate and its solubility in excess are noted.
Similar processes are used in sequence – for example, a barium nitrate solution will react with sulfate ions to form a solid barium sulfate precipitate, indicating that it is that sulfate ions are present. Digestion, or precipitate ageing, happens when a freshly formed precipitate is left at a higher temperature, in the solution from which it precipitates, it results in bigger particles. The physico-chemical process underlying digestion is called Ostwald ripening. Coprecipitation Salting in Salting out Effervescence Zumdahl, Steven S.. Chemical Principles. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-618-37206-7. Precipitation reactions of certain cations Digestion Instruments A Thesis on pattern formation in precipitation reactions
Texture (crystalline)
In materials science, texture is the distribution of crystallographic orientations of a polycrystalline sample. A sample in which these orientations are random is said to have no distinct texture. If the crystallographic orientations are not random, but have some preferred orientation the sample has a weak, moderate or strong texture; the degree is dependent on the percentage of crystals having the preferred orientation. Texture is seen in all engineered materials, can have a great influence on materials properties. Geologic rocks show texture due to their thermo-mechanic history of formation processes. One extreme case is a complete lack of texture: a solid with random crystallite orientation will have isotropic properties at length scales sufficiently larger than the size of the crystallites; the opposite extreme is a perfect single crystal, which has anisotropic properties by geometric necessity. Texture can be determined by various methods; some methods allow a quantitative analysis of the texture.
Among the quantitative techniques, the most used is X-ray diffraction using texture goniometers, followed by the EBSD method in Scanning Electron Microscopes. Qualitative analysis can be done by Laue photography, simple X-ray diffraction or with a polarized microscope. Neutron and synchrotron high-energy X-ray diffraction are suitable for determining textures of bulk materials and in situ analysis, whereas laboratory x-ray diffraction instruments are more appropriate for analyzing textures of thin films. Texture is represented using a pole figure, in which a specified crystallographic axis from each of a representative number of crystallites is plotted in a stereographic projection, along with directions relevant to the material's processing history; these directions define the so-called sample reference frame and are, because the investigation of textures started from the cold working of metals referred to as the rolling direction RD, the transverse direction TD and the normal direction ND.
For drawn metal wires the cylindrical fiber axis turned out as the sample direction around which preferred orientation is observed. There are several textures that are found in processed materials, they are named either by the scientist that discovered them, or by the material they are most found in. These are given in miller indices for simplification purposes. Cube component: Brass component: Copper component: S component: The full 3D representation of crystallographic texture is given by the orientation distribution function which can be achieved through evaluation of a set of pole figures or diffraction patterns. Subsequently, all pole figures can be derived from the O D F; the O D F is defined as the volume fraction of grains with a certain orientation g. O D F = 1 V d V d g; the orientation g is identified using three Euler angles. The Euler angles describe the transition from the sample’s reference frame into the crystallographic reference frame of each individual grain of the polycrystal.
One thus ends up with a large set of different Euler angles, the distribution of, described by the O D F. The orientation distribution function, O D F, cannot be measured directly by any technique. Traditionally both X-ray diffraction and EBSD may collect pole figures. Different methodologies exist to obtain the O D F from the pole data in general, they can be classified based on how they represent the O D F. Some represent the O D F as a function, sum of functions or expand it in a series of harmonic functions. Others, known as discrete methods, divide the O D F space in cells and focus on determining the value of the O D F in each cell. In wire and fiber, all crystals tend to have nearly identical orientation in the axial direction, but nearly random radial orientation; the most familiar exceptions to this rule are fiberglass, which has no crystal structure, carbon fiber, in which the crystalline anisotropy is so great that a good-quality filament will be a distorted single crystal with cylindrical symmetry.
Single-crystal fibers are not uncommon. The making of metal sheet involves compression in one direction and, in efficient rolling operations, tension in another, which can orient crystallites in both axes by a process known as grain flow. However, cold work destroys much of the crystalline order, the new crystallites that arise with annealing have a different texture. Control of texture is important in the making of silicon steel sheet for transformer cores and of aluminium cans. Textur
Volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Earth's volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, rigid tectonic plates that float on a hotter, softer layer in its mantle. Therefore, on Earth, volcanoes are found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging, most are found underwater. For example, a mid-oceanic ridge, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates whereas the Pacific Ring of Fire has volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates. Volcanoes can form where there is stretching and thinning of the crust's plates, e.g. in the East African Rift and the Wells Gray-Clearwater volcanic field and Rio Grande Rift in North America. This type of volcanism falls under the umbrella of "plate hypothesis" volcanism. Volcanism away from plate boundaries has been explained as mantle plumes; these so-called "hotspots", for example Hawaii, are postulated to arise from upwelling diapirs with magma from the core–mantle boundary, 3,000 km deep in the Earth.
Volcanoes are not created where two tectonic plates slide past one another. Erupting volcanoes can pose many hazards, not only in the immediate vicinity of the eruption. One such hazard is that volcanic ash can be a threat to aircraft, in particular those with jet engines where ash particles can be melted by the high operating temperature. Large eruptions can affect temperature as ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscure the sun and cool the Earth's lower atmosphere. Volcanic winters have caused catastrophic famines; the word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn comes from Vulcan, the god of fire in Roman mythology. The study of volcanoes is sometimes spelled vulcanology. At the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another as new oceanic crust is formed by the cooling and solidifying of hot molten rock; because the crust is thin at these ridges due to the pull of the tectonic plates, the release of pressure leads to adiabatic expansion and the partial melting of the mantle, causing volcanism and creating new oceanic crust.
Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the oceans. Black smokers are evidence of this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-oceanic ridge is above sea-level, volcanic islands are formed. Subduction zones are places where two plates an oceanic plate and a continental plate, collide. In this case, the oceanic plate subducts, or submerges, under the continental plate, forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. In a process called flux melting, water released from the subducting plate lowers the melting temperature of the overlying mantle wedge, thus creating magma; this magma tends to be viscous because of its high silica content, so it does not attain the surface but cools and solidifies at depth. When it does reach the surface, however, a volcano is formed. Typical examples are the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Hotspots are volcanic areas believed to be formed by mantle plumes, which are hypothesized to be columns of hot material rising from the core-mantle boundary in a fixed space that causes large-volume melting.
Because tectonic plates move across them, each volcano becomes dormant and is re-formed as the plate advances over the postulated plume. The Hawaiian Islands are said to have been formed in such a manner; this theory, has been doubted. The most common perception of a volcano is of a conical mountain, spewing lava and poisonous gases from a crater at its summit; the features of volcanoes are much more complicated and their structure and behavior depends on a number of factors. Some volcanoes have rugged peaks formed by lava domes rather than a summit crater while others have landscape features such as massive plateaus. Vents that issue volcanic material and gases can develop anywhere on the landform and may give rise to smaller cones such as Puʻu ʻŌʻō on a flank of Hawaii's Kīlauea. Other types of volcano include cryovolcanoes on some moons of Jupiter and Neptune. Active mud volcanoes tend to involve temperatures much lower than those of igneous volcanoes except when the mud volcano is a vent of an igneous volcano.
Volcanic fissure vents are linear fractures through which lava emerges. Shield volcanoes, so named for their broad, shield-like profiles, are formed by the eruption of low-viscosity lava that can flow a great distance from a vent, they do not explode catastrophically. Since low-viscosity magma is low in silica, shield volcanoes are more common in oceanic than continental settings; the Hawaiian volcanic chain is a series of shield cones, they are common in Iceland, as well. Lava domes are built by slow eruptions of viscous lava, they are sometimes formed within the crater of a previous volcanic eruption, as in the case of Mount Saint Helen
