What are igneous formations?

Igneous formations are rocks that come from molten rock cooling down and hardening, kind of like how chocolate becomes solid when it cools.

Imagine you have a big pot of hot soup, and you pour it into a bowl. As it cools, it gets firm. That's what happens with igneous rocks, only instead of soup, it's molten rock, and the bowl is the Earth’s surface or deep inside the Earth.

If molten rock cools slowly underground, it forms big, smooth crystals, like how a slow-cooked stew turns into thick, rich gravy. This kind of rock is called intrusive igneous rock.

But if molten rock cools quickly on the surface, like when lava flows out of a volcano and hardens fast, it makes small or no visible crystals, like how ice cream freezes quickly in the freezer and stays soft. This type is called extrusive igneous rock.

You can find examples all around you: granite is an intrusive rock that's used for countertops, while basalt is an extrusive rock found in places where lava once flowed, like the rocks under your feet on a walk near a volcano.