Question: Are there different types of volcanoes?

Matthew Pankhurst answered on 17 Jun 2013:

You bet! We can recognise different kinds of volcanoes by the type of rocks they make, and what sort of eruptions they have. Volcanoes that make lava are generally shaped like an upturned shield – very smooth gentle slopes, like Hawaii (which goes all the way down to the sea floor – it’s the biggest volcano on earth!). This is because the lava is runny and dribbles out. Volcanoes that are pointy and have steep sides have sticky lava which piles up, but normally this sticky lava explodes and makes steep piles of ash. Each sticky bit squeeze out the top and if it doesn’t explode (and often it does) it runs down the side slowly and sticks to the outside. You get these layers of ash then lava, ash then lava. There are also volcanoes that come up very fast and explode before they reach the surface, making a big dent in the ground! This is because it has lots of gas (think about if you put too much air into a type – pop!) Usually this only happens once per volcano, at the start. Also there are mud volcanoes, which is where hot water turns the rock to mud – and it rises up and dribbles out of cracks in the ground. 🙂