10 Interesting Shield Volcanoes Facts

Saturday, July 11th 2015. | Earth


Shield Volcanoes Facts talk about a type of volcano in the world. The fluid magma forms this type of volcano. If you check out the shape of this volcano, it reminds you with the shape of the warrior’s shield. It gets the name as a shield volcano due to the flow profile and large size. Let’s find out more interesting facts about shield volcanoes here:

Shield Volcanoes Facts 1: where to find the shield volcanoes?

You can find shield volcanoes around the world. The formation can be in conventional rift zones or even over the hotspots.

Shield Volcanoes Facts 2: the examples of the conventional rift zone formation

The instance of the shield volcanoes formed in conventional rift zones is the shield volcanoes located in East Africa and Icelandic shield volcanoes.

Shield Volcano Facts

Shield Volcano Facts

Shield Volcanoes Facts 3: over the hotspot formation

The shield volcanoes of Galapagos Islands and Hawaiian Emperor Season mount chain are the examples of the shield volcanoes formed over hotspots.

Shield Volcanoes Facts 4: the location

You can find the shield volcanoes on land. But most of them are located in the ocean basins. The largest one in the world is Tamu Massif.

Shield Volcano Eruption

Shield Volcano Eruption

Shield Volcanoes Facts 5: the Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands took the record of the most prominent and largest shield volcano in the world. The volcanoes in Hawaii are notable due to the large size. The volume of the volcanoes can reach thousands of km cubic. It also has the frequent rift eruptions. Moreover, it has the decentralized and rough shape.

Shield Volcanoes Facts 6: the chain

The chain of volcanoes in Hawaii contains around 43 big volcanoes.  You can find Mauna Lua as a part of the chain. It is considered as the second largest volcano in the planet. Get facts about volcanoes here.

Shield Volcano

Shield Volcano

Shield Volcanoes Facts 7: the height of Mauna Lua

Mauna Lua has around 19,000 cubic miles of rock. It has the height around 13,680 feet or 4,170 meter.

Shield Volcanoes Facts 8: Kilauea

Another mountain in Hawaii is Kilauea.  The current eruption of the mountain occurred in January 1983.  There is no need to wonder that it is considered as one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

Shield Volcanoes Facts

Shield Volcanoes Facts

Shield Volcanoes Facts 9: the Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands is not only a home to unique animals and plants. You can also find shield volcanoes and lava plateaus here. Get facts about cinder cone volcanoes here.

Shield Volcanoes Facts 10: the youngest and oldest islands

The shield volcanoes in Galapagos Islands can be seen in the youngest island of Fernandina and oldest island of Espanola.

Facts about Shield Volcano

Facts about Shield Volcano

Do you like reading facts about shield volcanoes?


tags: ,