1. How hot can volcano lava become?
2. How hot is it inside a volcano?
3. Is there any type of metal on earth that can stop lava?
4. What is dried up lava called?
5. Can you get a sample of it anywhere?
6. If so where? and can you break it or cut it?
7. How long does it take for a volcano to erupt?(Approximately?)
8. How do volcano's even form?
9. can you have one under water?
10. Can you make your own? If so how can you make a good one?

Dolphin

1. Lava erupts at temperatures of about 1,200 degrees celsius.

2. It is even hotter than 1,200 degrees celsius because the high pressure caused by the weight of the overlying rocks requires higher temperatures to convert the rock from a solid to a liquid.

3. I'm not sure what you mean by stop. I'm sure some engineers could design something to withstand the force exerted by the lava. In general, the lava will be diverted or fill up against the barrier and over top it.

4. Dried up lava is still called lava.

5. You can't find lava just anywhere. There is lots in California because that state is near a plate tectonic boundary. In contrast, here in North Dakota we are far from any plate tectonic boundary and the only place to find a volcanic rock is in my office (they're imported from Hawaii). However, I could go over to the Lake Superior region and see billion year old basalt erupted when the continent was trying to rift apart.

6. If you have a hammer you can break most rocks. Geologist have special saws with diamond-tipped blades for cutting rocks.

7. Active volcanoes can go tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years between eruptions. However, once magma starts to move up into the volcano it usually erupts in a period of months or a few years. 8. Volcanoes form because the earth is hot inside and it is trying to cool off. One way to cool off is to take heat from the inside and bring it to the surface. That's what magma does.

9. The biggest volcanic system, the ocean ridges, are under water volcanoes.

10. I like to use a can of compressed air and sand to make a volcano. Use a Y-shaped piece of plastic tubing. Tape the compressed air to one tube. Drop sand in the other tube. The pressure shoots the sand into the air, much like and ash eruption at some volcanoes.

Steve Mattox, University of North Dakota

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