Calderas

As our planet has evolved, major land forms have often been dependent on igneous activity. Features ranging from the mighty Andes, to the smallest hot spring are all dependent on the same processes of fire and earth that fuel and form the heat engines of our planet. One of these land forms that is common in the igneous environments is the feature known as a caldera. Calderas are very important land forms, not only due …

…explosion or subsidence calderas, while mafic composition magmas cause shield collapse calderas. Finally a major role in caldera types: mafic calderas in ocean trenches, mid ocean ridges and hot spots, and felsic calderas in extensional or ocean continent trenches is the tectonic environment in which they are located. All these environments form plutons which eventually result in a magma chamber that fills an empties forming collapses or pressure change explosions that give birth to calderas.