What Makes a Volcano Erupt?

A volcano erupts when pressure builds up inside the Earth and suddenly bursts out. It’s like when you shake a bottle of soda, if it gets too full, it will explode all over! Inside a volcano, magma, which is hot rock from deep in the Earth, rises up through a tube called a vent. When pressure becomes too much, it pushes the magma and gas out, making an eruption.

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Examples

  1. A soda bottle that has been shaken a lot will explode when you open it, just like magma builds up pressure inside a volcano.
  2. When you blow up a balloon, it stretches until it pops, this is similar to how rock around a volcano stretches before an eruption.
  3. A pot of boiling water can suddenly burst out, this is like what happens in a volcanic eruption.

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Categories: Science · volcanoes· earth science· eruption · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.