3 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
Can a volcano form inside a cave, if rising magma came in contact with an existing limestone cave system or similar?
Comment by the_muskox at 14/09/2023 at 03:33 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There's nothing stopping that from physically happening, but I've never heard of any example of that ever being found. Active volcanic areas tend not to have any limestone - limestone requires slow deposition of calcium carbonate over time, whereas on the scale of geologic time, volcanoes erupt frequently enough to disrup that. That's also the kind of thing that doesn't really get preserved in the geologic record.