Volcano Adventure: Exploring Earth's Fiery Giants while Crafting Your Own Erupting Volcano

Volcano Adventure: Exploring Earth's Fiery Giants while Crafting Your Own Erupting Volcano

I’m sure many of us can remember making our very own exploding volcanoes at school or at home with our parents during the summer. It’s almost like a rite of passage in learning science. Let your child experience that same joy by creating their own exploding volcano. Download my freebie to find out exactly how, plus you’ll find 9 other fun and easy science activities for your kids.

FREEBIE: Easy & Creative DIY Hands-On Science Projects for Kids

While making this fun volcano, teach your child about all the different types of volcanoes and eruptions. 

Volcanic Eruptions

There are two types of volcanic eruptions: explosive and effusive. The eruption that occurs depends mainly on the amount of gas trapped in the magma.

Magma is extremely hot liquid and semi-liquid rock located under the Earth's surface. When it reaches the Earth's surface, it is called lava.

Explosive Eruptions

An explosive eruption sends ash, gas, and lava high up into the atmosphere.

They occur when a lot of gas is trapped in the magma. This causes pressure inside of the volcano to build and build until there is nowhere for that gas to escape to and eventually the magma explodes out of the volcano.

Think of it like a fizzy drink. When you shake the drink the pressure builds, you can release the pressure by opening the lid. This causes all the gas to rush out the top of the bottle. The gas takes some of the liquid with it when it escapes. 

Explosive eruptions send gas high into the atmosphere forming a plume. This is a combination of volcanic particles and water vapor. They can also form pyroclastic flows which are extremely fast moving currents of hot gas and volcanic matter that sweep down away from the volcano, destroying everything in their path. 

Effusive Eruptions

An effusive eruption is where the magma forms lava flows, rather than shooting high up into the air like an explosive eruption. This occurs when the magma is runny, rather than thick and slow moving, which allows gas to escape easily. This means you don’t get that gas build up. Rather, the gas can escape easily.

When the magma erupts at the surface of the volcano, lava flows form. 

Volcanoes are diverse, there are many different types that all look and erupt differently. Each volcano is unique, but they can be classified into broad categories. Discover them below:

3 Classic Types of Volcanoes

Composite Volcanoes 

Composite volcanoes, also known as stratovolcanoes, while picturesque, can be deadly. These are the most famous type of volcano, and often the most dangerous. 

Composite volcanoes have steep sides and are a cone shape. They are formed from a sticky lava that is unable to flow easily. Because of this sticky substance, gas is unable to escape which causes a lot of pressure inside of the volcano. And what does this pressure lead to?

Explosive eruptions! 

When they erupt, they can produce ash clouds, lava flows, and an extremely fast moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter that will destroy everything in its path.

They are active over long periods (hundreds of thousands of years in some cases!) and erupt periodically during that time.

Some examples include Mount St. Helens and Mount Fuji.

The majestic Mount St. Helens in Washington State, USA. Its last big eruption was in 1980.

 

The awe-inspiring Mount Fuji in Japan that last erupted in 1707.

Cinder Cone Volcanoes

Cinder cone volcanoes, also known as pyroclastic or scoria cones, are the smallest and simplest type of volcano, They are also the most common type of volcano in the world. 

They look exactly how you would picture a volcano to look - a steep cone-shaped hill with a simple structure. There’s usually a prominent crater at the top.

They are built up from the accumulation of volcanic debris, such as ash, cinders, and volcanic rocks ejected during moderately explosive eruptions. The lava fragments that are blown into the air from these eruptions solidify and form cinders. The small cinders fall to the ground and the accumulation of them forms a cinder cone.

When a cinder cone volcano erupts, it's usually mildly to moderately explosive. They are generally monogenetic. This means that they only produce a single eruptive episode. After this eruption has ended, the system that connects the magma source to the vent is blocked.

Some examples include Parícutin in Mexico and Capulin in New Mexico

Parícutin volcano in Mexico. This volcano erupted for 9 years and from 1943 to 1952. Two whole towns had to be relocated. The volcano is now dormant.

 

Capulin Volcano in New Mexico. Capulin last erupted 55,000 to 62,000 years ago and is now extinct.

Shield Volcanoes

Shield volcanoes are the largest volcanoes on earth, however, they are not huge mountains like composite volcanoes. Rather they are long and broad with gentle slopes. 

Shield volcanoes are formed from repeated eruptions that occurred over long periods of time (we’re talking about a million years or longer!) These eruptions produced a runny lava that flowed easily far from the original source creating the gentle slopes of the shield volcano.

The explosions from a shield volcano are mostly non-explosive. They produce fluid lava flows and may produce fire fountains. Fire fountains are continuous sprays of magma through a vent.

Mauna Loa in Hawaii and Piton de la Fournaise on Reunion Island are examples of shield volcanoes.

Mauna Loa in Hawaii. It is the largest active volcano on the planet.

 

Piton de la Fournaise or “Peak of the Furnace” on Reunion Island. It is currently one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

We hoped you enjoyed learning about volcanoes, now go on and build your own with my freebie: Easy & Creative DIY Hands-On Science Projects for Kids


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