How To Erupt A Volcano – We use cookies to provide the best online experience. We use them to improve our website and content, and to target our digital ads on third-party platforms. You can change your settings at any time.

Create a list of articles to read later. You can access your list from any Discover article.

How To Erupt A Volcano

Making your own miniature eruption volcano is a great, safe way to start exploring these amazing geological features.

What Causes A Volcano To Erupt, And How Do Scientists Predict Eruptions?

Watch the video above to learn how to make a homemade volcano model, then stand back and watch it erupt.

1. Place the bottle upside down in the center of the cardboard box and draw a small circle around the neck.

2. Cut a straight line through the card to the center of the circle and cut.

3. Fold both sides of the card to create a cone shape. Place your circular hole.

Volcano Eruption Cut Out Stock Images & Pictures

Place the base of the cone flat, but make sure it is taller than your bottle.

4. Place the cone on top of the bottle. Tape the neck of the bottle to hold the top of the paper cone in place. Write the base of the cone on the second page.

5. Use paint to decorate the cone and make it look like a volcano. Allow the model to dry completely.

6. Mix the baking soda and dishwashing liquid in a bowl. Add water and mix well. Pour this mixture into your volcano.

The Deadliest Volcanic Eruption In History

8. When ready, pour the vinegar into the bottle with the bicarbonate of soda. Watch it explode and the lava flow.

Be careful when handling explosives and step back when you’re sure you won’t get anything in your eyes. Make sure you are working in a well-ventilated area.

Rather than a single solid surface, the uppermost parts of the Earth’s crust and mantle (together called the lithosphere) are divided into several tectonic plates that float on top of the asthenosphere. This is a deeper layer that flows very slowly.

This slow process moves the plates further apart (divergent boundary) or closer together (close boundary) or causes them to overlap each other (shift boundary).

Four Types Volcano Eruption Isolated On White Vector Image

Volcanoes are usually heterogeneous and form at close boundaries, but they also occur at hot spots in the center of tectonic plates.

Mount Fuji is one of the most famous volcanoes in the world. It last appeared at the beginning of the 18th century and is about 100 km from Tokyo, the capital of Japan, although some smaller towns are closer. © Marion & Christoph Aistleitner via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

Volcanoes are openings in the Earth’s crust through which molten rock, gases, and ash can escape. This mixture of materials is called magma below ground, lava when it erupts, and igneous rock when it cools and solidifies above ground.

Volcanoes are usually high or mountains, sometimes with very steep sides from erupted magma.

Amazon.com: Erupting Volcano Model Realistic Dinosaur (volcano)

Volcanoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, largely due to different types of magma, as well as how the volcanoes behave and where they are located.

Stratovolcanoes are the most common and perhaps the most recognizable type of volcano. Stratovolcanoes are steep-sloped and cone-shaped. They are also known as composite volcanoes.

They mainly produce explosive eruptions and are often associated with nearby plate boundaries. Their lava is sticky (sticky), meaning it usually doesn’t spread much before it cools, giving the volcano a long, conical profile.

Mount St. Helens, a United States stratovolcano, famously erupted in May 1980. An explosive lateral explosion occurred when a powerful earthquake toppled the north side of the mountain, causing a massive landslide. This reduced the pressure and allowed the volcano to erupt laterally. © Harry Glicken, USGS/CVO via Wikimedia Commons

How To Make A Volcano For Kids

Vesuvius, a still-active stratovolcano in Italy, erupted in 1979 and is considered the deadliest in European history. In total, it could kill more than 16,000 people.

Several towns were destroyed by the pyroclastic flow, the most famous being the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. A pyroclastic flow is a superheated mixture of ash, gases, and other volcanic material that moves at high speeds along the rim of a volcano.

It was a Plinian eruption with jets of magma and gas at high speeds from the volcano. This type of eruption can last for days and can produce superheated ash and gas that can reach heights of up to 55 kilometers.

Stromboli is another of Italy’s active stratovolcanoes, but it behaves differently than Vesuvius. This island volcano has been erupting for 2000 years. Mild explosive eruptions of magma, known as craters, occur regularly every minute to several hours. This type of eruption is known as strombolia and is exhibited by other volcanoes around the world, such as Mount Erebus in Antarctica.

How Volcanoes Erupt

Shield volcanoes are generally not as tall as stratovolcanoes, although they can reach great heights. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano on the planet Mars. At a height of 25 km and a diameter of about 624 meters, it is the largest volcano in the Solar System.

Eruptions of a shield volcano are usually mild and non-explosive, and are characterized by lava flows and water fountains. Shield volcanoes have flowing lava (low viscosity) that travels farther than the more solid lava of stratovolcanoes. This flowing lava causes the sweeping and gently sloping sides of these volcanoes.

Mauna Kea is a shield volcano in Hawaii. The Peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii at 4,207 meters above sea level © Nula666 via Wikula Media (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Shield volcanoes are usually located at hot spots found on tectonic plates, rather than at their boundaries. The most famous are the Hawaiian volcanoes like Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Kīauea.

How To Make A Volcano For Kids: Materials & Process (pictures)

Other volcanoes around the world also show mild eruptions in Hawaii. This type of eruption can produce lava plumes hundreds of meters high and traveling at speeds of up to 100 meters per second.

Cinder cones are small volcanoes made of loose volcanic material. Most of them are short-lived and can grow on the edges of larger volcanoes. It is usually formed by an explosive explosion or lava flow from a crater.

One of the most famous is Paricutin, a volcano that erupted in 1943 in a corn field in Michoacán, Mexico. Due to continuous strombolian eruptions, the volcano grew until it erupted in 1952. It reached a height of 300 meters.

Parikutin was the first time volcanologists were able to document the entire life of a volcano.

Worst Volcanic Eruption In American History Was From A ‘baby’ Volcano

The largest and most explosive volcanoes on Earth are called supervolcanoes, but this is not a scientifically defined type of volcano. These giant volcanoes produce giant calderas – volcanic craters formed by volcanic collapses when the underlying magma chamber erupts and is released.

One of the most famous is Yellowstone in the United States, whose caldera is 72 by 55 kilometers. The Yellowstone supervolcano last erupted about 630,000 years ago.

The Yellowstone supervolcano is known for its geothermal activity in the form of hot springs, fumaroles, and geysers.

There are about 20 supervolcano sites around the world. The last super eruption was 26,500 years ago from the Taupo volcano in New Zealand.

Mysterious Aspect Of Volcanic Eruptions Observed For The First Time • Earth.com

About 73,000 years ago, the eruption of Toba, a supervolcano in Indonesia, is believed to have caused a five- to seven-year volcanic winter that dropped global temperatures by 2-3 degrees Celsius. This shot may have had a profound effect on the course of the human species.

Receive email updates about our news, science, exhibitions, events, products, services and fundraising. We may occasionally add third-party content from our corporate partners and other museums. We will not share your personal information with these third parties. Age 13+ Privacy Statement Lava is flowing from the side of the volcano at temperatures of 1000C, but experts say it is not yet a serious threat to local residents.

Covering 5,271 square kilometers, it is a chain of five volcanoes that make up the Big Island of Hawaii.

Mauna Loa’s summit is 13,680 feet (4,170 m) above sea level, but its base is on the ocean floor. From there it is 30,085 feet (9,170 m) to the summit, making it taller than Mount Everest.

We Really Need A Good Plan For When A Supervolcano Erupts

Superheated material called magma bubbled up from deep within the Earth beneath Mauna Loa and neighboring volcanoes.

Dr Carmen Solana, a volcanologist at the University of Portsmouth, said: ‘Nobody knows exactly why this spot exists, but it could be caused by the decay of radioactive material in the Earth’s mantle.

According to Dr. Solana, when Mauna Loa erupted, magma first entered a cup-shaped crater at the top of the volcano.

Volcano about to erupt, how to make a volcano project erupt, making a volcano erupt, how to make a volcano erupt, how to make a volcano model erupt, latest volcano to erupt, how to erupt a volcano project, yellowstone volcano to erupt, how do a volcano erupt, volcano ready to erupt, erupt a volcano, last volcano to erupt