• Question: are volcanoes made of rock and larva or magma

    Asked by monty52 to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Hi monty52,
      Volcanoes are made up of everything that spews out from them.

      Firstly, to avoid a bit of confusion, lava and magma are actually the same thing – hot molten rock. For some reason, when it’s still underground, we call it magma. Once it gets to the surface and erupts, we call it lava. When lava is erupted, it cools and solidifies into volcanic rocks.

      Volcanoes also erupt a lot of volcanic ash. So volcanoes are formed from ash falls and solidified lava, which build up over time to form the volcanic cone.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Hi monty52,

      I have always wondered why Magma and Lava have different names for being the same thing, as it is quite confusing!

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