Paricutin Volcano is in Mexico which is in

Paricutin Volcano is in Mexico, which is in North America. Can you find Mexico on the map? What do you know about volcanoes?

• Under all the land sea on Earth there is hard rock. These rocks are not all joined together but each one is very big. They are called tectonic plates. The tectonic plates are always moving a little bit. • When 2 tectonic plates collide they push the earth and rock upwards, making mountains and volcanoes. • You can find out more about tectonic plates using the link below https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=y. Br-D 1 c. Fm. Es The dark blue lines show the tectonic plates. They are a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. Luckily for us there are not any tectonic plate edges under the UK, so we don’t get volcanoes. Phew!

• When a volcano is formed the red hot magma that is under the tectonic plates is squeezed up to the top of the volcano and bursts out of the top! • This makes a big explosion and creates an ash cloud, full of flying rocks. • When the magma comes out of the volcano it is called lava, and it flows down the sides of the volcano. It is very hot! • When the lava cools down it becomes rock and makes a new layer on the volcano. Can you see on the picture above the old layers of lava that have cooled down? Volcanoes can erupt lots of times.

This is Paricutin Volcano. It is very special because it is the only volcano in the world that people have seen being created. Most volcanoes were formed thousands or millions of years ago. Paricutin Volcano was pushed up by the tectonic plates moving just 70 years ago! A farmer was working in his fields when the ground suddenly started to rise in front of him with smoke coming out of the top. He ran away and the volcano carried on growing. It kept on growing for 10 years! Luckily the lava came out slowly so all the people who lived nearby were able to get away safely.

Visitors can climb up to the crater at the top of Paricutin Volcano. The crater is the round top part and is where the magma came out. It is a long walk, about 12 miles from the bottom to the top! When lava dries it makes black rock, can you see the old lava?

Super hot volcano facts! Did you know there are volcanoes in space? Other planets and moons have them. The biggest one in our solar system is called Olympus Mons and is on Mars. Volcanoes can be extinct (will never erupt again), dormant (sleeping) or active (ready to erupt). Volcanoes don’t just happen on land, they can erupt under the sea too. The loudest sound every recorded was a volcano called Krakatau exploding over 100 years ago. BOOM!

Lesson 2 You are going to make your own volcano! You can change the plastic bottle for a plastic cup. If you don’t have any modelling clay you can make a paper-maiche volcano, use playdough or even make a volcano shape out of flour.