There are two main types of volcano - composite and shield. The two types of volcano form in different places and have very different characteristics. Ash released from shield volcanoes often ...

This means that when a shield volcano erupts, the lava is extremely fast and can cover large areas very quickly. Some of the most famous examples of shield volcanoes make up the islands of Hawaii.

From the gentle slopes of shield volcanoes to the towering stratovolcanoes ... viscosity lava that can travel great distances ...

But as a shield volcano, Kilauea doesn’t have explosive, Mt. St. Helens-type eruptions. Instead, it emits a steady stream of fluid lava that generally flows gently down the side of the mountain ...

That's largely because it is a shield volcano, which generally do not have very explosive eruptions. What's more, the seismic activity around it is too minimal to cause a tsunami or a major ...