What type of volcanoes are located in the Alpine-Himalayan belt?
1 Answer
Mar 16, 2016
A trick question! Generally speaking there are no volcanoes in the Alps or the Himalayas.
Explanation:
Both of these mountain ranges are the result of continent to continent collisions of plates and so there is not much in the way of subducting plate to undergo partial melting, form magma, and shoot back up. See pic of Himalayan cross section. Because continental rocks are of low density, they tend not to get subducted, but instead tend to smash upwards to form mountains. Also, there is no active mantel hotspot or divergent plate boundary in either mountain ranges, so no volcanoes.