Volcanic Plug

What does a volcanic plug look like?

Have a look below I'll show you a few examples of volcanic plugs close to my place in the Glass House Mountains, Queensland, Australia.

These Mountains are all volcanic, they are located in South East Queensland, Australia, about 80km (50 miles) north of Brisbane (capital city of Queensland)

They are called the Glass House Mountains, yeah I know, strange name but it was Captain Cook (more accurately, Lieutenant James Cook, later Captain).

They were named Glasshouse because they reminded him of chimney stacks of glass manufacturing furnaces back in Yorkshire, England called glasshouses.

What Are They ?

Now I'm no geologist but I can give you a basic description.

When a volcano is erupting and the magma/lava flows out through a vent (opening) it sometimes hardens inside the vent, this forms a plug.

Now sometimes this plug gets blown out of the volcano (this would be a big explosion) and sometimes it stays put.

The Glass House Mountains as we know them today, stayed put.

The Land Around Them Isn't Very Hilly, Why Not ?

Most of the land around these mountains is pretty flat, that is because of erosion.

Now again, I'm no Geologist and definitely not a Hydrologist but I have heard that most of the surrounding land was washed away by a giant tsunami.

This tsunami theory makes sense and makes you look at the aboriginal dreamtime story about a big and very quick flood a bit differently.

Other Volcanic Plugs Around The World

El Capitan Located in the Yosemite National Park, it is a very popular rock climbing area. Known as El Cap to rock climbers. Yosemite is in California, USA. It is the first national park and has almost 4 million visitors per year. El Capitan is 900m tall.

Petit Piton Located on the island of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. It is 739m tall.