How is volcanic eruptions closely related to earthquakes?

Have you ever felt an earthquake? Have you ever wondered if a volcano had erupt at
the same time? Did you ever feel a minor earthquake? Sometimes you might have not
ever felt a minor earthquake or any earthquake at all. Have you ever noticed that
sometimes when there are earthquakes, volcanoes erupt at the similar rate? It is
because sometimes volcanoes cause earthquakes! Or the opposite, earthquakes cause
volcanoes! These 2 pages will explain how volcanic eruptions are related to
earthquakes.

According to geo.mtu.edu/volcanoes, Earthquakes are related to volcanic eruptions and

sometimes produce danger which include ground cracks, ground deformation, and
damage to manmade structures. There are two types of earthquakes that can occur a
volcano: volcano-tectonic earthquakes and long period earthquakes.

Volcanoes sometimes cause the earthquakes. According to volcano.oregonstate.edu,

most of the earthquakes directly beneath a volcano are cause by the movement of
magma. The magma exerts pressure on the rocks until they crack. Then, the magma
squirts into the crack and starts building pressure on the rocks again Every time the
rock cracks it makes a small earthquake! That is one of the reasons why volcanoes and
earthquakes are related and that is one function of volcanic eruption causing an
earthquake.

You might be wondering, how about earthquakes causing volcanic eruption?. Well,
earthquakes cause volcanic eruption by the pressure of the shake earthquake makes.
When there are big earthquakes, the magma will be pressured more than small
earthquakes so it might erupt easily. However, there is also an exception. When there
are less magma in the volcano, there is less percentage of volcanic eruption. You can
also think of as a soda bottle. Lets pretend that soda bottle is a volcano. When you
shake the soda bottle like an earthquake, the pressure builds up just like a pressure of
the magma. So when you open the cap of the bottle, the soda explodes by all the
pressure it had while shaking a bottle.

There are some

examples that can
prove you about related volcanic eruption and earthquake. According to
www2.usgs.gov, an Andean volcano (Cordon Caulle) began to erupt 2 days after the
magnitude 9.6 in 1960, Chile earthquake. That means the volcanic eruption and
earthquakes are related because if they are happening at the close time, that means
that they are connected with each others.

Another reason that volcanoes and earthquakes are related is that usually, the places
where earthquakes occur often have a lot of volcano. One of the reason why that
happens is that sometimes earthquakes happen when there are movement of tectonic
plates, like convergent, divergent and transform. In those movement, for example like
convergent boundary, it can form a volcano. (All the boundaries are included for this
fact)

The examples of convergent boundary, divergent boundary and transform boundary

making earthquakes and creating a volcanoes
San Andreas fault made an earthquake in San Francisco in 1906
(Transform)
Volcanic Arc made by subduction (Convergent)
Etc.

As you can see, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are closely similar and related to
each others. Volcanoes and cause earthquakes, earthquakes can cause volcanic
eruptions!! If you noticed, they are connected to plates boundaries (Convergent
boundaries, Divergent boundaries and Transform boundaries). Sometimes, they are
caused by plates boundaries. There are a lot of proof that volcanic eruptions and

earthquakes are related. Now think about it. Have you ever saw the news? In the news,
have you noticed, sometimes when they announce the incident of a volcanic eruptions,
they often mention the earthquakes. Or it could be the opposite. When they announce
the earthquakes, there might be some volcanic eruptions! If you havent noticed, why
dont you find those two connections?!

How and Why do tectonic plates move?

Tectonic plates move because of the circulation made by the mantle and Earths core.
When the heat of the core goes up to the mantle, the cool air in the mantle sinks into the
core. And when the cool air sinks into the hot core, it becomes hot air which goes up
again to the mantle and cool down like a cycle. This cycle is called, convection
circulation.

Convection circulation is like a hot air balloon. When the hot air balloon rises, the cold
air on the top sinks down and becomes another warm air which rises again with the hot
air balloon. This is just like convection circulation because the warm air and the
cold/cool air become a cycle. Warm rises. Cool sinks.
Almost some of the tectonic plates in our planet Earth is caused by the heat in the core
that causes hot magma to rise and the cooler magma to sink down while they move the
plates with them.

It takes a long time for plates move and you cant expect it to move fast. We cant feel it
because it moves very gradually and slowly. So it would take millions of years to move
plates closer or apart. Each year, a plate would move 2-5 centimeters.

There are three types of ways how plates move which are Convergent boundary,
Divergent boundary and Transform boundary.

The Convergent boundary is when two plates move towards each other and collide. It
can even form a folded mountain. When they collide with each other, the heavier one
goes under the lighter one or drowns. Also, when there is Convergent boundary, there
may be earthquakes, volcanic activity, underwater trenches and mountain formations.
Good examples of the Convergent boundary are Mariana Trench and Himalaya
Mountain.

The second one is Divergent boundary. The Divergent boundary is when two plates split
and breaks apart. According to National Geographic, when they pull away each others,
in ocean, magma from deep within the Earth rises at the point of a divergent boundary
and creates new crust which becomes mountains and volcanoes!

The third one is Transform boundary. The Transform boundary is when two plates slide
or rub against each other. If this process stop or gets stuck, you are in big trouble. It
increases stress and heavy and powerful earthquakes are released! An example of the
Transform boundary is The San Andreas fault made by North American plate and
Pacific plate.

Sometimes, the tectonic plates cause volcanic eruptions. According to study.com , when
there are Convergent boundary or Divergent boundary, they create volcanoes. When
tectonic plates spread out from each others and create a gap, hot magma rises up and
fills in the gap tectonic plates made. As the magma cools down, it forms a new land. It
could be on the continents or on the seafloor, which depends on where the plates are
located. When the plates meet each other, one of them might get pulled under the
others, getting recycled back into the Earths interior. This process is called, subduction.
During subduction, the piece of crust getting pulled under melts and turns into magma
again. This magma is the magma which erupts from a volcano!!! As the magma comes
out of the volcano, it cools down and build the volcano even more taller. If there are
more subduction, the more buildup happens. Volcanic ranges such as Sierra Nevada
and Cascade in U.S. were formed from plate movement and rising magma.

Also, tectonic plates cause earthquakes. Well, again according to study.com ,

earthquakes mostly happen in the region called, The Ring of Fire. The reason why so
many earthquakes occur in that areas is because that is where many of the Earths
tectonic plates converge, diverge, and transform. Earthquakes begin in deep
underground along the plate boundaries. When the pressure builds up with all these
converging, diverging and transforming, eventually the plates break FREE from each
others in all of sudden and that cause the EARTHQUAKES!!!!!!

According to sciencenewsforstudents.org , the new computer model predicted Earths

tectonic motions. It started its analyses from the time of the planets formation, some
4.5 billion years ago. Then the model looked ahead some 10 billion years. Even using a
supercomputer and simplifying how they modeled the planet, these calculations took
weeks. It predicted that the Earths tectonic plates wont slide forever.

Right now, you are standing on the tectonic plates. You cant really feel it but plates are
moving. Why? Because of convection circulation. With all convection circulation,
scientists theorize that in about 250 million years later, all the plates and continents will
fit together again like Pangea in long time ago. Now Imagine What would it look like
after 250 million years If everything people do is all similar Everyone with same
cultures Isnt that just FASCINATING?!!!!