Volcano Melts Village

Volcano Melts Village — page 1
CHAPTER 1 VICIOUS VOLCANOES Volcanoes are openings in Earth’s surface Most of the time these openings are closed shut and barely noticeable Then suddenly they can open and shoot out torrents of volcanic ash gases and viciously hot liquid rock Eruptions like these can be violent and spectacular to witness However they can also be devastating causing the tragic loss of many lives and huge amounts of damage and destruction for miles Underground Drama Ingredients for Disaster The drama of a volcano starts deep underground There our planet is in motion and different parts of the rock it is made from push against each other Enormous forces and high temperatures build up from this pushing They cause hot liquid rock under high pressure to move around beneath the surface The easiest places for it to escape the pressure are at the slightest gaps in the outer rocky skin of the Earth It is at these places that volcanoes erupt The bubbling rock called lava that bursts out from within Earth can spill down the sides of a volcano like burning hot syrup or it can shoot into the air like a cork exploding from a bottle of soda The clouds of gas and ash that billow out of a volcano and spread through the air can be hot dense and poisonous Thick lava moves fairly slowly allowing people to escape its path On steep slopes thinner lava can move more quickly making it harder to get away 4