Stratovolcano Stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava, tephra, pumice and ash. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and periodic intervals of explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions, although some have collapsed summit craters called calderas. The lava flowing from stratovolcanoes typically cools and hardens before spreading far due to high viscosity. The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high-to-intermediate levels of silica (as in rhyolite, dacite, or andesite), with lesser amounts of less-viscous mafic magma. Extensive
Eoarchean geology highly deformed biotite-hornblende tonalitic to granitic orthogneiss. Subordinate mafic amphibolitic and chloritic elliptical enclaves and inclusions are observed in felsic gneisses.Although the rocks are highly deformed and could not reflect the original field relation between rock units, the chemical composition of the rocks showcases how Eoarchean greenstone-TTG be like. Chemical composition in the mafic inclusion suggests the acasta area was possibly a supra-subduction setting. Dominant felsic rocks are composed of highly deformed tonalitic, granodioritic and granitic gneisses. Inclusion of as early as 4.2 billion years old zircon core are observed in the gneisses. Mafic rocks, i.e. subordinate amphibolite and ultra