Home > For Teachers > Magma Activity - A Table-Top Volcano

If rocks are heated and squeezed enough, they may melt. The molten rock can rise up to the surface in a volcano. You can make your own volcanic eruption by following this recipe.

A Table-Top Volcano

What you will need: A cereal bowl; a small container (eg. a mini-yogurt cup or a cut down plastic cup), sodium bicarbonate powder (from any Chemist -or baking powder will do instead); vinegar; red paint; tray

The challenge: Make your own erupting volcano on the table top.

Try it this way: Put the bowl upside down on the tray with the small pot or cup on the top. Make a small pool of red paint in the bottom of the cup (mix paint from your paint set with water or use a little poster paint from a bottle). Pour vinegar into the cup until it is two thirds full and stir in the paint. Add a dessert spoonful of sodium bicarbonate powder and see the red 'lava' bubble out of the 'crater' at the top of your 'volcano' and flow down the sides.

What happens and why: Why does the liquid erupt? This 'eruption' is caused when the vinegar has a chemical reaction with the sodium bicarbonate. A gas is produced that makes the liquid in the cup bubble over. In real volcanic eruptions, gas is released (but not by a chemical reaction) and the lava bubbles out of the volcano like this. If it gets stuck in the crater and goes solid, the pressure can build up and produce a huge volcanic explosion. You want to be a long way away if this happens!

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