Volcano A volcano is an opening in a planet ' s crust , often formed into a mountain , from which molten lava and gas es are ejected . Volcanoes produce igneous rock . The study of volcanoes is volcanology . ( ) One of sixty - two moons orbit ing a specific gas giant had a volcanic terrain . When Commander Charles Tucker III and Arkonian pilot Zho ' Kaan crash landed there in 2152 , the fact that the terrain – due to the volcanic activity – was rich in diamagnetic mineral s interfered with a distress call from a makeshift transceiver Tucker set up , the mineral s preventing the signal from being transmitted . ( ) In January 2153 , active volcanoes were created on a planet whose orbit had recently shifted , taking it between a pair of gas giants . The volcanoes came about because the gravitational pull of the gas giants caused the core of the other planet to superheat . Starfleet was able to predict the formation of the volcanoes less than a week in advance , also forecasting they would cover the planet . Commander Tucker even reckoned the " geological firework s . . . could be fun . " The volcanic activity was observed by his ship , , using thermal scanner s , and six imaging relay s which had been deployed by the ship in high orbit of the erupting planet about thirty hours beforehand . Some of the eruptions from the planet got close to " Enterprise " , so the ship withdrew by 5 , 000 kilometers . The volcanic activity unearthed multiple microbial lifeforms which had henceforth been living underground , so " Enterprise " became aware of them for the first time . ( ) Janus VI had no current volcanic activity as of 2267 . ( ) Volcanoes on Penthara IV were activated when subterranean pockets of carbon dioxide were opened by a phaser drill . The volcanoes started to erupt and produced large plumes of volcanic dust , threatening to bring another ice age on the planet . ( ) Ligos VII was prone to periodic volcanic activity . ( ) Qo ' noS was composed of a subterranean series of volcanoes , with seven vents spread over its surface . ( ) Volcanic vent s could supply enough heat to sustain life even on rogue planet s . An example of such a world was Dakala . ( ) " In an alternate timeline , " " Captain " " Jean - Luc Picard saw an active volcano on Earth in the region of France about 3 . 5 billion year s ago , when Q brought him there . " ( ) " In the alternate reality , a supervolcano on Nibiru threatened to destroy all life on the planet , including the indigenous Nibiran s . The threat was averted when , wearing an especially heat - resistant environmental suit , activated a cold fusion device in the magma chamber , rendering the volcano inert . " ( ) Appendices . Background information . Volcanoes in were shown with matte painting s . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , No . 6 / 7 , p . 112 ) In the writers ' second draft script of , Reed remembered having once stood on an active volcano in Japan , which had melted his boot soles . He referred to it as " arguably [ . . . ] the newest piece of rock out there . " The group tasked with depicting the volcano in " Star Trek Into Darkness " obviously had to find a way to do so without subjecting Spock actor Zachary Quinto to the harsh conditions of an actual volcano . ( ) A concept illustration of the volcano can be viewed here . Precisely how the volcano sequence would be filmed was the subject of some early discussions between Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett and Cinematographer Dan Mindel . They opted against shooting the sequence indoors , Mindel then deciding that the necessary live - action footage would be captured on a night shoot . Director J . J . Abrams was also involved in choosing which elements would come together to form the sequence . " " As with everything J . J . does , he wanted this to look as realistic as possible , " " reflected Pyro Foreperson William Aldridge , " " and he wanted a good mix of practical and CG effects . " " ( ) Part of the volcano in " Star Trek Into Darkness " was built as a physical set , outdoors in Marina del Rey , California . The set was comprised of an eighty - foot - long set of volcanic rocks backed by green - screen and was located on the Playa Vista lot . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 78 ) Despite the fabricated nature of the set , the production team endeavored , for Zachary Quinto ' s benefit , to give the environment a realistic ambiance and a sense of feasibility , using such elements as heat , light sources and smoke to provide interaction . Related Roger Guyett , " " You weren ' t standing on a green rock , you were standing on a textured surface and you had smoke and stuff was blowing through . " " The production crew filmed the volcano sequence at night . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 78 ) Dan Mindel remarked , " " We shot it all at night so we could control the lights and manipulate it so that the steam that we were making would block out the sun and give us a lot of texture . All the sparks and fire is real . " " The team used fire - bars and ember - generators to create the on - set pyrotechnics . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 78 ) " " We had a lot of fire , and a lot of fireballs , shooting 30 feet up into the sky [ . . . ] There is something very rewarding about going to work and creating a 30 - foot fireball , " " William Aldridge remarked , laughing . ( ) To produce the sparks , the creative staff adopted one of the oldest special effects in Hollywood , which used to commonly be employed to make campfire sparks in movies set in the Wild West ; the group used a Venturi air system to inject particulate – which , to generate the sparks , had to be ground - up , organic material – into an extremely hot flame , resulting in the airflow creating embers that flew into the sky . " " We went to a commercial supplier and bought very fine ground charcoal , made from burnt coconut shells , " " remembered Special Effects Supervisor Burt Dalton . " " We placed about a dozen blower motors around the set , with two or three weed burners per source to create heat . Then we installed Venturi devices , injected the ground charcoal into the airflow , which ignited the product , and the high - pressure airflow jettisoned massive amounts of embers into the sky . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 78 ) William Aldridge enthusiastically recalled , " " We built these really nice spark machines . They were very cool [ . . . ] We [ . . . ] built a spark machine that expelled this coconut charcoal . We put that in these little air movers and propelled it through jets of fire , so it would look like volcanic ash and substance . It was crazy to see all of that shooting around the set but , man , it looked incredible . " " Aldridge was highly approving of the use of the volcano in general , describing it as " a great sequence . " ( ) The full effect of the volcano relied , of course , on visual effects , courtesy of the film ' s VFX team . In fact , apart from the live - action footage , Roger Guyett wanted additional aspects of the volcano to be achieved with an entirely CGI approach . This was influenced by having worked on a tricky volcano sequence in " Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith " , set on the fiery planet Mustafar and incorporating practical , miniature and digital work . Under Guyett ' s supervision , Industrial Light & Magic supplied digital backgrounds , lava simulations , embers , and additional smoke for the Nibiran volcano . The company used a three - dimensional model of Spock ' s volcano suit to reflect environment projections of the vast lava - filled cavern . The visual effects artists also generated a flat plane of the environment in CGI , before digitally mapping the volcano ' s churning contents . Fragmenting crust – floating on the surface of the lava and layered with heat distortions – as well as magma eruptions were all depicted in lava simulations which involved approximately forty render passes . " " Roger then guided us to place explosions and geysers , " " continued CG Simulation Supervisor Dan Pearson . " " We generated smoke by exporting particles from the sim and loaded those elements into our Zeno animation pipeline so we could see the effects interacting with the environment . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , pp . 78 & 81 ) Noted Guyett , " " The guys worked very hard to capture the volatile nature of the lava , along with all the extra details , like the embers . " " Guyett went on to say that , because Nibiru was conceived as a different planet than Earth , " " It didn ' t have to be completely based on the physics of our world . We could push some of the boundaries a little bit . " " ( )