As you might expect from the name, these volcanoes consist almost entirely of loose, grainy cinders and almost no lava. They are small volcanoes, usually only about a mile across and up to about a thousand feet high. They have very steep sides and usually have a small crater on top. This type of volcano can be hundreds of miles across and many tens of thousands of feet high. The individual islands of the state of Hawaii are simply large shield volcanoes.
Shield volcanoes have low slopes and consist almost entirely of frozen lavas.
They almost always have large craters at their summits. All rights reserved.