Cinder cone

Cinder cone volcanoes are the most common type of volcanoes. They are vertical sided cones of basaltic remains and are lesser and simpler than composite volcanoes. Streaming gases take liquid lava blobs into the atmosphere that drop back to earth around a single give vent to form the cone. The volcano forms when ash cinders and bombs pile up about the vent to shape a circular or oval cone.

Many cinder cones contain a bowl-shaped crater at the top. Lava flows are frequently erupted by cinder cones, moreover through a breach on one side of the hollow or from a vent situated on a flank. If the crater is completely breached, the remaining walls form an amphitheatre or horseshoe shape around the vent. Lava hardly ever issues from the top (apart from as a fountain) because the loose, uncemented cinders are too weak to hold up the pressure exerted by molten rock as it rises in the direction of the surface through the central vent.