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A volcano is a geological monument usually generated by the eruption through a planet's surface of magma, molten rock welling up from the planet's interior. Other forms of volcano include ice volcanoes (particularly on some moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune) and mud volcanoes. On Earth, volcanoes tend to occur near the boundaries of crustal plates. Important exceptions exist in hotspot volcanoes, which occur at locations far from plate boundaries; hotspot volcanoes are also found elsewhere in the solar system, especially on its rocky planets and moons.
Mud volcanoes are formations often not associated with known eruptive activity. Active mud volcanoes tend to involve temperatures much the same as those of igneous volcanoes, except when a mud volcano is actually a vent of an igneous volcano.
The name "volcano" is thought to derive from Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn originates from Vulcan, the name of a god of fire in Roman mythology. The study of volcanoes is called volcanology (sometimes spelled vulcanology). Learn more at Wikipedia.
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