Mordor and its Geography

In the land of Middle Earth, there are many geographical landforms, but one of the most well known is the large volcano located almost in the center of Mordor called Mount Doom. Mount doom is an extremely active composite volcano which is clear because of its tall, steep slopes and constant lava flow and eruptions.

Because of Mount Dooms constant activity, it is growing due to the nonstop deposit of tephra and hardening lava. The lava that is being emitted from this volcano is felsic, which is more viscus and explosive. It is also clear from this picture that Barad-dûr, the tower with the eye of Sauron on top, was constructed on volcanic neck or dike. This is a result of magma formations  underground being exposed by erosion. There are also dikes that continue from Barad-dûr all the way to Mount Doom itself showing there are large systems of underground magma flows.

It is clear that the rock on the surface of the volcano is jagged which indicates thats it is A'a basalt rock; A'a meaning the basalt (an igneous rock) is sharp and has a rough surface, which you can see from that picture.





Pictures links:
http://therookiecynic.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mordor.png
http://www.tolkienforums.com/Mount_Doom.jpg