What are Volcanos?
What is a volcano?
A volcano is a mountain or a hill with an opening at the top through which hot materials such as lava, erupt. Most volcanoes are found along the Pacific Ocean, in an area called the Ring of Fire.
How do volcanoes form?
Volcanos begin to form beneath the ground that we walk on. Many, many football fields below the Earth, a substance called magma forms. Magma is extremely hot and red in color. Magma is a very important part of the volcano because magma is what creates lava that erupts from the volcano. Magma flows all around the volcano and sometimes escapes from the sides before it gets a chance to erupt as lava.
What is an eruption?
An eruption is like shaking a can of soda and opening it right away. The lava that shoots out of the top flows all around and begins to cool down. After the lava cools down it becomes hard and forms a rock. Once the lava starts to pile up and grow, mountains and islands form!
What comes out of the volcano?
The material that erupts out of a volcano contains ash, cinders, and hot molten rock called lava. As the lava cools and hardens, it becomes rock. This rock is now a brand new layer of the earth! I f this layer builds high enough, it can form a mountain or an island.