How Does a Volcano Become a Island?

A volcano can become an island when lava cools and hardens in the ocean.

Imagine you're baking a cookie in the oven, and it's super hot, so hot that if you put it in water, it would sizzle and make a mess. Now think of lava as that hot cookie. When lava flows from a volcano into the ocean, it meets cold water, which makes it cool down really fast.

As the lava cools, it turns into hard rock, like your cookie turning from gooey to crunchy. Over time, more and more lava builds up in the ocean, layer by layer, until there’s enough land above the water. That land becomes an island!

Think of the volcano as someone building a sandcastle at the beach, every time it throws out lava, it's like adding another tower or wall to the castle. If this happens again and again, eventually the sandcastle will be so big that part of it is above water, just like an island!