How Do Volcanoes Create New Landmasses?

Volcanoes make land by spitting out hot rock from deep inside the Earth. Imagine a lava lamp, when it's turned on, light and color rise to the top. Volcanoes work kind of like that: molten rock, or lava, flows up through cracks in the ground and hardens into new land. Over time, this can create whole islands or even new continents.

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. A lava flow from an erupting volcano slowly covers the ocean floor until it forms a new island.
  2. Underwater volcanic eruptions create islands like Hawaii, which were once completely underwater.
  3. Lava cools and hardens to form land, just like when you pour hot chocolate into a mug and it turns solid.

Ask a question

See also

Discussion

Recent activity

Nothing here yet.