Effusive eruption from effusive to explosive, due to pressure build up below the lava dome. Effusive eruption An effusive eruption is a type of volcanic eruption in which lava steadily flows out of a volcano onto the ground. There are two major groupings of eruptions: effusive and explosive. Effusive eruption differs from explosive eruption, wherein magma is violently fragmented and rapidly expelled from a volcano. Effusive eruptions are most common in basaltic magmas, but they also occur in intermediate and felsic magmas. These eruptions form lava flows and lava domes, each of which vary in shape, length, and width. Deep in the
Lava Beds National Monument Beds. Aa is formed when pahoehoe cools and loses some of its gases. Aa is rough, sharp, and jagged; an excellent example is the Devils Homestead lava flow, which originated at Fleener Chimneys. Most of the rest of the lava in the monument is andesitic. Pumice, a type of rhyolitic lava, also is found covering the monument; this rained down around 900 years ago during the eruption of Glass Mountain. The flows from Mammoth and Modoc Craters comprise about two-thirds of the lava in the monument. Over 30 separate lava flows located in the park range in age from 2,000,000