Volcanoes Facts for Kids
Explosive facts about volcanoes and geology
The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines lowered the world's average temperature by about 0.5Β°C for two years.
Olympus Mons on Mars is so wide that if you stood on its edge, you couldn't see the summit because it would be beyond the horizon.
Black sand beaches in Hawaii and Iceland are made of tiny fragments of volcanic basalt rock broken down by the ocean.
Volcanic eruptions can produce their own lightning bolts inside the ash cloud. The rubbing of ash particles creates static electricity that sparks dramatically.
The eruption of Mount Toba in Sumatra about 74,000 years ago was one of the largest known volcanic events. Some scientists believe it caused a 'volcanic winter' that drastically reduced the human population.
The magma chamber beneath Yellowstone is estimated to be roughly 90 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, containing enough molten and partially molten rock to fill the Grand Canyon more than eleven times.
All of the Hawaiian Islands were created by volcanoes erupting on the ocean floor. As the Pacific plate moves over a hotspot, new islands slowly form.
In Hawaii, lava has two main textures: smooth, ropy 'pahoehoe' and rough, jagged 'aa'. The names come from the Hawaiian language.
Some tiny frogs and insects live on the slopes of active volcanoes, surviving in the warm, humid environment created by volcanic steam vents.
Volcanic eruptions are measured on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), which goes from 0 to 8. A VEI 8 'mega-eruption' would eject more than 1,000 cubic kilometres of material.