Volcano

A volcano is the religious symbol of Yamatsumi.

A volcano is a mountain or rupture in the earth that allows hot lava, ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Three broad types of volcano exist:

• cinder cones are made up of compacted ash and volcanic debris, and most erupt only briefly before becoming inactive;
• shield volcanoes are low and broad, due to the lava they erupt flowing for large distances before cooling;
• stratovolcanoes are steeply sloped and much higher than the other two types, the lava they erupt tending to cool quickly and before it can flow very far.

A volcano's activity may cause its magma reservoirs to empty out, at which point the mountain may collapse into the resulting cavern to form a crater-like caldera. A caldera may still remain volcanically active, as is the case with those containing the Gorum Pots of Numeria and Terwa Lake in the Mwangi Expanse.

Despite their hostile natures, volcanoes are often home to a variety of creature such as fire giants, red, magma and underworld dragons, fire and magma elementals, thoqquas, fire whales and magma oozes.

Volcanoes often arise in areas where the boundaries between the Universe and the Plane of Fire are thin. When a volcano erupts, the sheer elemental force released often creates a new portal to the Plane of Fire.

Prominent volcanoes

See also: Category:Volcanoes

• Droskar's Crag, a stratovolcano in Darkmoon Vale
• Blackpeak, a volcano in Taldor long assumed to be dormant erupted in 4486 AR
• Mhar Massif, in Varisia
• Mount Kaltafarr, an ancient volcano and the highest peak in Taldor
• Mount Kuvetheir, located in the World's Edge Mountains in Taldor, but was not known to be an active volcano until it erupted in 4607 AR.
• Pho Yim, a smouldering volcano in the eastern Kullan Dei mountains and near Tang Mai's border with Xa Hoi. The capital of Tang Mai, Surat Prakan, is located at the foot of this volcano.
• Sakalayo Peak, one of the most active volcanoes in the Plane of Fire and a sacred site to the plane's inhabitants.
• Toam Puong in the Kullan Dei mountain range.
• Zhobl and Zhonar, in Qadira
• The volcano housing Zom Kullan, the capital of Nagajor, in Tian Xia

In religion

• Yamatsumi is the Tian-Min deity of volcanoes.
• Mhar, the stillborn demigod said to reside in Mhar Massif.

References

Paizo published a major article on volcanoes by Russ Taylor in Anvil of Fire, titled "Volcanoes of Golarion".

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.