Volcanoes!

Volcanoes are openings in the Earth's crust where super heated water, gas, and magma, which is liquid rock, come up to the surface of the earth. Many volcanoes look like mountains rising into the sky, but some are just small volcanic hills. The power and danger associated with unpredictable volcanoes has made them the stuff of legend throughout recorded time.

Legends About Volcanoes

The name for volcanoes comes from an ancient Roman legend about them. The volcanic mountain on the Italian island Vulcano was once believed to be the chimney for the god's blacksmith, Vulcan, who made Jupiter's thunderbolts. In the western hemisphere, the Aztecs had their own volcano legends, which centered around two lovers, Izta and Popoca, who died before they could be wed. The gods took pity on their story and turned their bodies into two volcanoes that sit side by side. These mountains can be seen near what is today Mexico City.

For more information about volcano legends, visit:

• Volcano Legends – Provides a variety of legends from across history
• Living With Volcanoes – Site from the USGS with several myths and legends

Volcano School Projects

Children love the mystery and unpredictable nature of volcanoes. This provides educators with an excellent opportunity to teach. There are numerous hands-on projects that involve volcanoes, including:

• Volcano Science Fair Project – Creates a volcano using an acid and base chemical reaction
• Paper Mache Volcano – Create a volcano model out of paper mache

Where to Find Active Volcanoes

One of the best ways to learn about volcanoes is to visit one, when it is not actually erupting of course. These links provide lists of active volcanoes around the world:

• Earth's Active Volcanoes – A list divided by geographic region
• Active Volcanoes of the World – A site showing active volcanoes using Google Maps

More Information

So how do volcanoes work exactly? Volcanoes typically are formed where two tectonic plates come together. When one is pushed below the other and pushed into the hot mantle layer, some of the rock is melted. This forms magma, which pushes its way to the surface, forming the volcano. Sometimes the magna mixes with water and other gases until it explodes through the crust, creating an eruption. The flowing magma is called lava. For more information about the technical aspects of volcanoes, visit:

• How Volcanoes Work – An extensive resource with scientific and mathematic information about volcanoes
• How Do Volcanoes Work? – A resource from the Imperial College of London

Even though we understand how volcanoes work and can often predict the timeframe of an eruption, knowing exactly when a volcano will erupt and how dangerous the eruption will be is still beyond the scope of science. This unpredictability is, perhaps, what makes volcanoes so intriguing to us.