How Do Volcanoes Create New Landmasses?

Volcanoes make land by spitting out hot rock from deep inside the Earth. Imagine a lava lamp, when it's turned on, light and color rise to the top. Volcanoes work kind of like that: molten rock, or lava, flows up through cracks in the ground and hardens into new land. Over time, this can create whole islands or even new continents.

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Examples

A lava flow from an erupting volcano slowly covers the ocean floor until it forms a new island.
Underwater volcanic eruptions create islands like Hawaii, which were once completely underwater.
Lava cools and hardens to form land, just like when you pour hot chocolate into a mug and it turns solid.

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Categories: Science · volcanoes,geology,earth science