Dikes are imaginable as the veins of a volcano, the pathways of rising magma.

A dike is
called a -usually more or less vertical- flat, sheet-like magma body that cuts
unconformingly through older rocks or sediments.

Most dikes can be described as fractures into which magma intrudes or from which they
might erupt. The fracture can be caused by the intrusion of pressurized magma, or vice
versa, the rise of magma can be caused by and exploit existing or tectonically forming
fractures. The point where a dike reaches the surface and erupts lava can be called a
vent.
Magma (from Ancient Greek (mgma) meaning "thick unguent") is a mixture of molten or
semi-molten rock, volatilesand solids[1] that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is
expected to exist on other terrestrial planets and some natural satellites. Besides molten rock,
magma may also contain suspended crystals, dissolved gas and sometimes gas bubbles. Magma
often collects in magma chambers that may feed a volcano or solidify underground to form
an intrusion. Magma is capable of intruding into adjacent rocks (forming igneous dikes and sills),
extrusion onto the surface as lava, and explosive ejection as tephra, or fragmented rock, to
form pyroclastic rock.
A is one of three basic types of flow lava. A is basaltic lava characterized by a rough or rubbly
surface composed of broken lava blocks called clinker. The Hawaiian word was introduced as a
technical term in geology by Clarence Dutton.[12]
The loose, broken, and sharp, spiny surface of an a flow makes hiking difficult and slow. The
clinkery surface actually covers a massive dense core, which is the most active part of the flow. As
pasty lava in the core travels downslope, the clinkers are carried along at the surface. At the leading
edge of an a flow, however, these cooled fragments tumble down the steep front and are buried
by the advancing flow. This produces a layer of lava fragments both at the bottom and top of an a
flow.
A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure or eruption fissure, is a linear volcanic
vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is often a few meters
wide and may be many kilometers long. Fissure vents can cause large flood basaltswhich run first
in lava channels and later in lava tubes. After some time the eruption builds up spatter resp. ash
cones and may concentrate on one or some of them. Small fissure vents may not be easily
discernible from the air, but the crater rows (see Laki) or the canyons (see Eldgj) built up by some
of them are.