... it to do so in each case. The main factors important in volcano form include: the shape of the vent, the number of eruptions from a single vent, the surface environment around the vent, how viscous the magma is, the nature of the eruptive activity, the time between eruptions, and the volume of erupted material. Shield volcanoes are some of the largest volcanic structures on the planet, the absolute height of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on Hawaii illustrates this as they are around 30,000 feet, with a base of almost 400 kilometres across. These volcanoes, which can be subdivided into Hawaiian, Icelandic and Galapagos types, have one thing in common, that they are made up of very fluid, non-viscous basaltic lava. The rapid accumulation of successive flows of this lava leads to a volcano with shallow sides, steeper near the flanks as the lava cools and needs more of a ...

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