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Volcanoes are like sleeping giants. After years or even centuries of rest, they wake up.
And they erupt! Some powerful eruptions blow the tops off mountains, flatten out forests, and dam up rivers. Some have killed tens of thousands of people. A few have buried cities, and others have buried mountains. Some big eruptions have even changed the world’s weather for years.
Volcanoes also shape the Earth. Their activity builds islands, mountains, plains, lakes, and the ocean floor.
Active volcanoes are dangerous, but people still live near them. Farmers like the soil they make. Some of our favorite foods, like chocolate, come from plants that grow well in volcanic soil.
Come discover volcanoes from the inside out. We’ll look at them on land, under the seas, and in outer space.
The word volcano comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. Volcano means the hole in the ground where lava comes up. It also means the mountain that the lava builds. ▶
▲ If a volcano is erupting, it’s active. An active volcano is also one that has erupted since people started keeping records. A dormant volcano is active, but sleeping. Scientists think it will erupt again some time. An extinct volcano is not expected to erupt again.
▲ Mauna Kea is the Earth’s tallest mountain. It rises more than 33,000 feet from the ocean floor! However, you can see only 13,796 feet of it above sea level. Mount Everest is 29,035 feet high, but you can see all of it.
Where is the most volcanically active place in our solar system? It’s not on Earth but on a moon of Jupiter known as Io. The many volcanoes have made Io’s surface very blotchy. It looks kind of like a pizza! ▼
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Who is the Man in the Moon?
Differences between light and dark areas on the surface create the “Man in the Moon.” The darker places are lava flows. Most of them are in craters left by meteorites that hit the ground. The lighter places are highlands. They don’t have many dark-colored volcanic rocks.
