Volcanoes Facts for Kids
Explosive facts about volcanoes and geology
You can technically roast a marshmallow over lava, but the toxic gases make it very dangerous and the marshmallow would taste terrible!
The gloomy weather caused by the 1815 Tambora eruption kept Mary Shelley indoors during her 1816 holiday, where she wrote the story of Frankenstein.
When certain types of lava cool slowly and evenly, they crack into striking hexagonal columns. The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland is a famous example.
A lahar is a fast-moving river of volcanic mud and debris that can travel over 100 kilometres per hour. In 1985, a lahar from Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia buried the town of Armero.
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, the volcanic ash preserved the city of Pompeii so well that you can still see bread, paintings, and even people's expressions today.
Obsidian, the shiny black glass formed when lava cools very quickly, was used by ancient peoples to make incredibly sharp cutting tools and arrowheads.
Most volcanoes form at the boundaries of tectonic plates, where one plate slides beneath another in a process called subduction, melting rock in the mantle and creating magma.
Pele's hair is the name for thin strands of volcanic glass that form when lava droplets are stretched by the wind. Each strand can be finer than a human hair.
Underwater volcanoes heat the surrounding seawater, creating unique habitats where tube worms, shrimp, and other creatures thrive in water that would otherwise be freezing cold.
New Zealand's White Island (Whakaari) erupted without warning in 2019 while tourists were visiting the crater, highlighting how unpredictable some volcanoes can be.