Shield volcano are cave-like volcanic straights formed by the hardening of overlaying lava. These structures help further the propagation of lava, as the walls of the tube insulates the lava within. Lava tubes can account for a large portion of shield volcano activity; for example, an estimated 58% of the lava forming Kīlauea comes from lava tubes. In some shield volcano eruptions, basaltic lava pours out of a long fissure instead of a central vent, and shrouds the countryside with a long band of volcanic material in the form of a broad plateau. Plateaus of this type exist in Iceland, Washington, Oregon,
Volcano tectonics understood within the framework of a reasonable model or theory of volcano behaviour. Quantitative and testable models must, in the end, be related to some physical theories and thus to physics. In Volcano-Tectonics, like in solid-earth geophysics in general, the main physical theories used are those that derive from continuum mechanics. For solid-earth sciences, these are mainly solid mechanics, including rock mechanics, fracture mechanics and general tectonophysics, and fluid mechanics, including fluid transport in rock fractures. Volcano tectonics Volcano tectonics is a scientific field that uses the techniques and methods of structural geology, tectonics, and physics to analyse and interpret