Hi there! I’m Doug, and today we’re going to explore something really cool: lava! Have you ever seen lava flowing from a volcano? I haven’t seen it in real life, but I’d love to visit a place like Hawaii to see it up close.
Before we dive into real lava, let’s talk about lava lamps. They look like lava, but they’re actually made of wax, the same stuff used to make crayons. Isn’t that neat?
Our friend Deshawn has a great question: Can you make lava? You might think you can’t get close to lava because it’s super hot and dangerous. But in some places, like Hawaii, lava flows slowly, and people can watch it safely from a distance. Just remember, never touch it!
In a video, someone placed a camera near flowing lava. As the lava got closer, it was so hot that it set the camera on fire! Lava is really, really hot, and it glows because of its heat.
So, what exactly is lava? Let’s find out! When lava is red hot and flowing, we call it molten or liquid lava. But after a few days, when it cools down, it turns black and becomes solid rock. Scientists call this lava rock because it comes from lava.
Think of it like this: When you freeze water in an ice cube tray, the liquid water turns into solid ice. Ice doesn’t just appear; it comes from frozen water. Similarly, lava rock is the “frozen” form of lava. As lava cools, it becomes solid rock, just like how water becomes ice.
Now, what if we did the opposite? Could we make lava by heating up a rock? Yes, we can! Some scientists heat rocks in a really hot oven to create lava. They do this to learn more about how lava flows, even when they’re far from a volcano.
Deep inside the Earth, it’s hot enough to melt solid rock into liquid lava. Scientists call this underground lava “magma.” When it reaches the Earth’s surface, like during a volcanic eruption, we call it lava.
So, to sum it up, lava is created when solid rock gets so hot that it melts into a liquid. This happens naturally deep in the Earth, but scientists can also make lava in a lab.
Thanks for joining me on this lava adventure! Stay curious, and keep exploring the amazing mysteries of our world. See you next time!
Make Your Own Lava Lamp: Gather a clear bottle, water, vegetable oil, food coloring, and an effervescent tablet (like Alka-Seltzer). Fill the bottle halfway with water, then add a few drops of food coloring. Pour vegetable oil into the bottle until it’s almost full. Notice how the oil floats on top of the water. Break the effervescent tablet into pieces and drop them into the bottle one at a time. Watch as the colored blobs rise and fall, just like a lava lamp! Discuss why the oil and water don’t mix and how the tablet creates bubbles that move the colored water.
Rock to Lava Experiment: Collect some small rocks and place them in a sunny spot or under a lamp. Feel the rocks before and after they are heated. Discuss how heat can change things, like turning solid rock into liquid lava. Ask the children to imagine what would happen if the rocks got even hotter, like inside a volcano. Encourage them to draw a picture of what they think the rocks would look like as lava.
Observe and Report: Next time you see a candle burning, observe how the wax melts and then hardens again when it cools. Compare this to how lava cools and turns into rock. Ask the children to write a short story or draw a comic strip about a lava adventure, where the lava travels from deep inside the Earth to the surface and then cools down to become rock.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, it’s Doug! I find lava fascinating. I’ve never seen lava flowing out of a volcano in real life, but I’d love to visit somewhere like Hawaii to experience it.
This is a lava lamp—it’s not real lava, of course; that stuff is made out of wax, the same material that crayons are made from. But it looks like lava!
Someone named Deshawn has a question about lava. Let’s give him a call now.
Hi, Doug!
Hi, Deshawn! What’s your question?
Can you make lava?
That’s a great question! Have you ever seen lava up close? You might think you could never get very close because it would be super dangerous, but there are some places where lava slowly oozes out, and it is possible for people to get very close if they’re careful. You definitely wouldn’t want to touch it—just watch what happens in this video. Someone in Hawaii put a camera on a rock near flowing lava. The lava gets closer and closer, and when it touches the camera, you can see it catches fire. The lava is that hot! You can see that lava is really, really hot—so hot that it glows.
So, what is lava? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? We can get one big clue by looking at what happens to the lava after a few days once it stops erupting. Here’s what lava looks like when it’s red hot and oozing over things; we call that molten or liquid lava. But after a few days, it looks different. Once lava cools down, it turns black. What is that? If we look up close, it’s rock! Scientists call this kind of rock lava rock because that’s where the rock came from. Lava starts as hot, flowing liquid, but once it cools down, it becomes solid rock.
Here’s another way to think about it: You probably know that when you pour water into an ice cube tray and put it in the freezer, the liquid water freezes into solid ice. It’s not like the ice cubes just appear out of nowhere; ice comes from frozen water. Well, these rocks are the frozen form of lava. As liquid lava cools down, it becomes solid, just like how liquid water becomes solid when cooled. The difference is that you don’t have to put lava in a freezer for it to cool down. As soon as lava comes out of the volcano, it starts to cool down enough to become solid rock.
So, we know that we can turn lava into rock by cooling it down, but what if we did the reverse? Could we create lava by heating up a rock? The answer is yes! In fact, this is exactly what some scientists do. They create lava by heating up rocks in a really hot oven. These scientists are nowhere near a volcano, but they’ve made their own lava and pour it into different materials like sand, dirt, or ice to learn more about how lava flows.
Deep down in the Earth, it’s hot enough to melt solid rock into liquid lava, but there’s still a lot we don’t understand, which scientists are excited to figure out. For example, why do volcanoes appear in certain places and not others? When lava starts to form deep underground, scientists call it magma. If it reaches the surface of the Earth, like when it comes out of a volcano, we call it lava.
So, in summary, lava is created by solid rock getting heated up so hot that it melts into liquid. This happens naturally deep down in the Earth, but you can also make your own lava in a really hot oven.
That’s all for this week’s question! Thanks, Deshawn, for asking it.
Now, for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and found three questions submitted to me that I’m thinking about answering. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: How did the first cameras work? Why are frogs and toads different? Or how did cotton candy get its name?
So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week!
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Let me know if you need any further modifications!
