1. Types
1.1. Shield Volcano
1.1.1. The largest volcanoes on earth, not counting flood basalt flows. Exclusively basalt, a type of lava that is very fluid when erupted, Characterized by low-explosivity that form cinder cones and spatter cones at the vent.
1.1.1.1. Kilauea and Mauna Loa, Hawaii
1.2. Stratovolcanoes
1.2.1. Comprise the largest percentage of the earths individual volcanoes and most are characterized by eruptions of andesite and dacite. They are usually half lava and half pyroclastic material.
1.2.1.1. Mt. Fuji and Mt. St. Helens
1.3. Caldera Complexes
1.3.1. They are the most explosive but often don't look like volcanoes. They can be so explosive that they collapse in on themselves. The last erupted was 83 AD.
1.3.1.1. Yellowstone
1.4. Monogenetic Fields
1.4.1. Don't look like volcanoes but are collections of hundreds of thousands of separate vents and flows. Slow supply rates of magma
1.4.1.1. San Francisco Volcanic Fields
1.5. Flood Basalts
1.5.1. The individual flows may be more than 50 meters thick and extend for hundreds of kilometers and are slow moving.
1.5.1.1. Columbia River Flood Basalts
1.6. Mid-ocean Ridges
1.6.1. Plates are pulled apart by convection in the upper mantle and the lava intrudes to the surface to fill in the space or the lava will push the plates apart. Either way oceanic plates are created.
1.6.1.1. MORB Mid-ocean Ridge Basalt
2. Eruptions
2.1. Hawaiian
2.1.1. fluid basaltic lava is thrown into the air in jets from a vent or line of vents (a fissure) at the summit or on the flank of a volcano