{{short description|Linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts}} [[File:Volcano q.jpg|thumb|A volcanic fissure and lava channel with lava fountain]] [[File:Lava channel with overflows edit 4.jpg|thumb|Channel of lava erupted during a fissure eruption of Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii, 2007]] thumb|Eruption fissure with spatter cones, Holuhraun, Iceland, 2014 [[File:Mauna Loa from the air May 2009.jpg|thumb|Mauna Loa with different lava flows and fissure vent]] thumb|A volcanic fissure eruption on Fagradalsfjall, Iceland, 2021 thumbnail|Crater row of Laki thumbnail|Eldhraun, a lava field produced by the Laki craters thumb|Cinder cones on Etna
A '''fissure vent''', also known as a '''volcanic fissure''', '''eruption fissure''' or simply a '''fissure''', is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is often a few metres wide and may be many kilometres long. Fissure vents can cause large flood basalts which run first in lava channels and later in lava tubes. After some time, the eruption tends to become focused at one or more spatter cones. Volcanic cones and their craters that are aligned along a fissure form a '''crater row'''.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Local stresses, dyke arrest and surface deformation in volcanic edifices and rift zones | last1=Gudmundsson | first1=A. | last2=Brenner | first2=S.L. | journal=Annals of Geophysics | year=2004 | volume=47 | issue=4 | pages=1433–1454 | doi=10.4401/ag-3352}}</ref> Small fissure vents may not be easily discernible from the air, but the crater rows (see Laki) or the canyons (see Eldgjá) built up by some of them are.
The dikes that feed fissures reach the surface from depths of a few kilometers and connect them to deeper magma reservoirs, often under volcanic centers. Fissures are usually found in or along rifts and rift zones, such as Iceland and the East African Rift. Fissure vents are often part of the structure of shield volcanoes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/index.html |title=V. Camp, Dept. of Geologic Sciences, Univ. of San Diego: How volcanoes work. Eruption types. Fissure eruptions. |access-date=2014-09-24 |archive-date=2018-02-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228090151/http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=www.volcanodiscovery.com|url=https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/geology/glossary/fissure-vent.html|title=Geology glossary|access-date=September 25, 2001}}</ref>
==Iceland==
In Iceland, volcanic vents, which can be long fissures, often open parallel to the rift zones where the Eurasian and the North American lithospheric plates are diverging, a system which is part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://jardvis.hi.is/sites/jardvis.hi.is/files/Pdf_skjol/Jokull58_pdf/jokull58-einarsson.pdf |first1=Páll |last1=Einarsson |title=Plate boundaries, rifts and transforms in Iceland |journal=Jökull |volume=58 |issue=12 |year=2008 |pages=35–58 |doi=10.33799/jokull2008.58.035 |s2cid=55021384 |access-date=2014-09-24 |archive-date=2017-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118113203/http://jardvis.hi.is/sites/jardvis.hi.is/files/Pdf_skjol/Jokull58_pdf/jokull58-einarsson.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Renewed eruptions generally occur from new parallel fractures offset by a few hundred to thousands of metres from the earlier fissures. This distribution of vents and sometimes voluminous eruptions of fluid basaltic lava usually builds up a thick lava plateau, rather than a single volcanic edifice. But there are also the central volcanoes, composite volcanoes, often with calderas, which have been formed during thousands of years, and eruptions with one or more magma reservoirs underneath controlling their respective fissure system.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~raman/papers2/Thordarson%20and%20Hoskuldsson%202008%20Postglacial%20volcanism.pdf |first1=Thorvaldur |last1=Thordarson |first2=Ármann |last2=Höskuldsson |title=Postglacial volcanism in Iceland |journal=Jökull |volume=58 |issue=198 |year=2008 |pages=e228 |doi=10.33799/jokull2008.58.197 |s2cid=53446884 }}</ref>
The Laki fissures, part of the Grímsvötn volcanic system, produced one of the biggest effusive eruptions on earth in historical times, in the form of a flood basalt of 12–14 km<sup>3</sup> of lava in 1783.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://earthice.hi.is/grimsvotn_volcano |title=Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland: Grímsvötn. Received 9/24, 2014. |access-date=2014-09-24 |archive-date=2018-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180514052657/http://earthice.hi.is/grimsvotn_volcano |url-status=dead }}</ref> During the Eldgjá eruption A.D. 934–40, another very big effusive fissure eruption in the volcanic system of Katla in South Iceland, ~{{convert|18|km3|cumi|abbr=on}} of lava were released.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://earthice.hi.is/katla_volcano |title=Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland: Katla. Received 9/24, 2014. |access-date=2014-09-24 |archive-date=2018-03-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318224202/http://earthice.hi.is/katla_volcano |url-status=dead }}</ref> In September 2014, a fissure eruption was ongoing on the site of the 18th century lava field Holuhraun. The eruption is part of an eruption series in the Bárðarbunga volcanic system.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://earthice.hi.is/bardarbunga_2014 |title=Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland: Bardarbunga 2014 |access-date=2014-09-24 |archive-date=2021-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415105100/http://earthice.hi.is/bardarbunga_2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Hawaii==
The radial fissure vents of Hawaiian volcanoes also produce "curtains of fire" as lava fountains erupting along a portion of a fissure. These vents build up low ramparts of basaltic spatter on both sides of the fissure.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rader |first1=Erika |last2=Geist |first2=Dennis |date=2015-10-01 |title=Eruption conditions of spatter deposits |journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research |volume=304 |pages=287–293 |doi=10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2015.09.011 |bibcode=2015JVGR..304..287R |issn=0377-0273|doi-access=free }}</ref> More isolated lava fountains along the fissure produce crater rows of small spatter and cinder cones. The fragments that form a spatter cone are hot and plastic enough to weld together, while the fragments that form a cinder cone remain separate because of their lower temperature.
==List of fissure vents== {{incomplete list|date=March 2019}} {| class="wikitable sortable" ! rowspan="2"|Name!!colspan ="2"|Elevation!!Location!!rowspan="2"|Last eruption |- ! metres!!feet!!Coordinates |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Bolivia}} Quetena || 5730|| 18799|| {{coord|22.25|S|67.42|W|type:mountain|name=Quetena}} || Unknown |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Canada}} Ray Mountain || 2050|| 6730|| {{coord|52.23|N|120.12|W|type:mountain|name=Ray Mountain}} || Pleistocene |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Chile}} Cordón Caulle || 1798|| 5899|| {{coord|40.46|S|72.25|W|type:mountain|name=Cordón Caulle}} || 2011 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Eritrea}} Manda-Inakir || 600+|| 1968|| {{coord|12.38|N|42.20|E|type:mountain|name=Manda-Inakir}} || 1928 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Ethiopia}} Alu || 429|| 1407|| {{coord|13.82|N|40.55|E|type:mountain|name=Alu}} || Unknown |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Ethiopia}} Hertali || 900|| 2953|| {{coord|9.78|N|40.33|E|type:mountain|name=Hertali}} || Unknown |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Iceland}} Eldgjá || 800|| 2625|| {{coord|63.88|N|18.77|W|type:mountain|name=Eldgjá}} || 934 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Iceland}} Fagradalsfjall || 385|| 1263|| {{coord|63.88|N|22.27|W|type:mountain|name=Fagradalsfjall}} || 2023 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Iceland}} Holuhraun || 730|| 2395|| {{coord|64.87|N|16.83|W|type:mountain|name=Nornahraun}} || 2014 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Iceland}} Krafla || 650|| 2130|| {{coord|65.73|N|16.78|W|type:mountain|name=Krafla}} || 1984 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Iceland}} Laki|| 620|| 2034|| {{coord|64.07|N|18.23|W|type:mountain|name=Laki}} || 1784 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Iceland}} Litli-Hrútur || 312|| 1024|| {{coord|63.92|N|22.21|W|type:mountain|name=Litli-Hrútur}} || 2023 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Iceland}} Sundhnúkur || 98|| 322|| {{coord|63.88|N|22.39|W|type:mountain|name=Sundhnúkur}} || 2024 (ongoing) |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Indonesia}} Banda Api || 640 || 2100 || {{coord|4.525|S|129.871|E|type:mountain|name=Banda Api}} || 1988 |- align="right" | align="left" | {{flagicon|Japan}} Koma-ga-take || || || || 1996 |- align="right" | align="left" | {{flagicon|Japan}} Kuchinoerabu || || || || 1980 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Myanmar}} Singu Plateau || 507|| 1663|| {{coord|22.70|N|95.98|E|type:mountain|name=Singu Plateau}} || Unknown |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Nicaragua}} Estelí || 899|| 2949|| {{coord|13.17|N|86.40|W|type:mountain|name=Estelí}} || Unknown |- align="right" | align="left" | {{flagicon|Northern Mariana Islands}} Pagan || || || || 1981 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Nicaragua}} Nejapa Miraflores || 360|| 1181|| {{coord|12.12|N|86.32|W|type:mountain|name=Nejapa Miraflores}} || Unknown |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Pakistan}} Tor Zawar<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1180/minmag.2010.074.6.1027 |title=Eruption of basaltic magma at Tor Zawar, Balochistan, Pakistan on 27 January 2010: Geochemical and petrological constraints on petrogenesis |journal=Mineralogical Magazine |volume=74 |issue=6 |pages=1027–36 |year=2010 |last1=Kerr |first1=A. C |last2=Khan |first2=M |last3=McDonald |first3=I |bibcode=2010MinM...74.1027K |s2cid=129864863 }}</ref> || 2237|| 7339|| {{Coord|30|28|45|N|67|28|30|E|type:mountain|name=Tor Zawar}} || 2010 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Portugal}} São Jorge Island || 1053|| 3455|| {{coord|38.65|N|28.08|W|type:mountain|name=São Jorge Island}} || 1907 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Russia}} Tolbachik || || || || 1975 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Spain}} Cumbre Vieja || 1949|| 6394|| {{coord|28|34|N|17|50|W|type:mountain|name=Cumbre Vieja}} || 2021 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Spain}} Lanzarote || 670|| 2198|| {{coord|29.03|N|13.63|W|type:mountain|name=Lanzarote}} || 1824 |- align="right" | align="left"| {{flagicon|Sri Lanka}} Butajiri Silti Field || 2281|| 7484|| {{coord|8.05|N|83.85|E|type:mountain|name=Butajiri Silti Field}} || Unknown |}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{Commons category-inline|Fissure vents}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20111019131319/http://www.volcanodb.com/volcanoes/Fissure-Vent/ Detailed list and KML files for Fissure Vents] *[http://www.volcanolive.com/fissurevent.html Volcanolive.com Page on Fissure Vents]
{{Volcanoes}}
Category:Fissure vents Category:Lists of coordinates