Don’t blow your top

Volcan Longquimay

We have been travelling up through Chile and we have seen loads of volcanoes. A volcano is a mountain where molten rock has erupted through the surface of our planet. The molten rock means liquid rock, it is also called magma or lava.
Our Earth is made up of three parts. The middle is called the core, around that is the mantle and the top layer is called the crust. The crust has plates which sometimes move, and when one plate goes on top of another the magma gets squeezed through and that is what causes the volcano to erupt.
There are three types of volcanoes, active (which means it could erupt at any time), dormant (which means it has been quite a while since it erupted) and extinct (which means it hasn’t erupted in a long, long, long time and it might not erupt again).
Volcanoes come in different shapes, such as a cone, a lava dome, a strato volcano and a shield shape. I think Volcan Osorno is a cone, but Crater Navidad is a lava dome.
We did a walk below Volcan Osorno it was shaped like a cone and had snow on it. We had to walk on the black lavav rubble. It was not easy because it was steep and slippery, but it was fun on the way down because Dad and I jumped down the lava scree.
Crater Navidad got it’s name from Navidad which means Christmas in Spanish because it exploded on Christmas day 1988. The walk had no trees and was like a black sand desert. We had a hard walk up the crater….. but great fun coming down. The crater was still hot because the rocks had steaming water coming out of them and the rocks felt really warm. The crater was lots of colours, especially black, red and orange. We walked around the crater, Dad threw a rock in and it took ages to hit the bottom! On our walk we saw lava bombs, which are molten rock that has been spat out of the volcano and it cools before it reaches the ground.
We visited some thermal pools. They were hot, hot, hot, like a bath at home but they were outside. The water was hot because of the volcanoes. We went in the thermal pools after our two day trek. We sat in the pools and I found t5he perfect place to do a torpedo! We stayed in the pools until the stars and moon came out.
I have found out some volcano facts:
Lava flows at 1 to 2 miles per hour, it’s maximum speed is 5 mph.
In Australia there is a lavav flow that was more than 100 miles long.
The rocks that form Snowdon were made by volcanoes.
Volcanoes are found on the edge of tectonic plates.
Animals are found in dormant volcanoes (I saw bugs and lizards in Crater Navidad) but active volcanoes are too hot.
People live near volcanoes because of minerals, geothermal energy, it is good for growing thing and tourists visit.
Here are some things that might mean a volcano may be going to erupt, there may be a small earthquake, the Earth’s surface may bulge into a bump because of the magma, there may be more gasses and smoke coming out of the volcano and the water from the ground may get hotter.
If a volcano is about to erupt you must leave the area if possible. In Pucon they have a traffic light warning system and signs showing evacuation routes. If you can’t get away you must shut all windows and doors and block up any vents so the ash doesn’t get in.
I think volcanoes are great but I am glad none of the volcanoes decided to erupt while we were walking on them!