What are the types of volcanic eruption?
Volcanic eruptions range from relatively calm, non-violent extrusion of lava flows on the earth’s surface to the highly explosive, with violent ejection of fragmented volcanic debris (called tephra) as high as 80 or 90 kilometres above the volcano. One of the factors underlying the type of eruption is the composition of the magma (molten rock) underlying the volcano. How Volcanoes Work provides a detailed explanation on the different compositions, viscosity, temperatures and gas content of magma within the eruption dynamics controls section.
