Of course! Volcanoes and canyons form some of the most impressive geologic features on Earth. Most people can recognize a picture of the Grand Canyon or one of the Hawaii volcanoes. There are many different types of volcanoes that come in all different shapes and sizes. All volcanoes for by the eruption of “igneous” material (melted rock). Some volcanoes, like Mauna Loa in Hawaii, erupt lava that flows and eventually cools to form solid rock. Other volcanoes, like Mt. Rainier in Washington State, have explosive eruptions that spew out huge clouds of hot gas and ash. The shape of different volcanoes depends on the type of eruption that they form from. I included a picture that shows an example of this. click here for picture Mauna Loa is one of the Hawaii “shield” volcanoes. Mt. Rainier is a “composite” volcano. You can see from the picture that shield volcanoes are really big, but not very steep. Composite volcanoes are generally smaller, but are steep and jagged.

Canyons form when rivers cut into rock. Flowing water has a lot of energy and can “erode” or scrape away rock! It usually doesn’t happen very fast, but over millions of years, huge canyons can be carved. A really good example of this is the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was carved over millions of years by the Colorado River, which runs all the way from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to the Pacific Ocean.

Volcanoes are mountains formed by the piling up of ash, cinders, or lava that is erupted out of the earth below. Because of the shape of the way that these things erupt, volcanoes usually form cone-shaped mountains, while other mountains are more often pyramid-shaped.

Canyons are valleys carved out by flowing water such as rivers or streams. This means that canyons have an uphill and a downhill direction, even in the bottom of the canyon where the river or stream that created the canyon is located. This is unlike other valleys in which the valley floors can be flat.