Most volcanoes form at the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates, which are huge slabs of crust and upper mantle that fit together like puzzle pieces. Think of these plates as massive rafts floating ...

Volcanoes are grouped into four types: cinder cones, composite volcanoes, shield volcanoes and lava volcanoes. Cinder cones are circular or oval cones made up of small fragments of lava from a single ...

Mount Etna is like no other volcano on Earth, new research finds. In fact, the volcano may have formed in a bizarre way, reminiscent of how some seamounts, called petit-spot volcanoes, grow on the ...

Over millions of years, the Earth’s upper layers have performed a dance that has created mountains, volcanoes, continents, ridges and ocean trenches. Tectonic plates play a key role in this process.