volcanism

plural volcanisms · alternative vulcanism

1. countableuncountablegeographyAny of the natural phenomena and processes associated with the action of volcanos, geysers and fumaroles

   This rejuvenation-stage or post-erosional volcanism produces lava even more alkalic than late-stage volcanism.

   2004, Peter Morrison Vitousek, Nutrient Cycling and Limitation: Hawai'i as a Model System, →ISBN, page 12

   1 more example

   Some 200 million years ago, the rocks that became the Palisades cliffs just across the Hudson River from Manhattan formed during volcanic activity that helped rip apart the ancient supercontinent Pangea. That volcanism helped lead to the birth of the Atlantic Ocean while it also contributed to killing off as much as a quarter of all life on Earth during the event known as the end-Triassic mass extinction.

   2022 February 3, Lucas Joel, “Dissolving in Toxic Oceans: How an Ancient Extinction Happened”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2022

   Synonyms: volcanicity