• Question: is there lava under the ground

    Asked by to Andrei, Ekbal, Gemma, Helen, Ruth on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ekbal Hussain

      Ekbal Hussain answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Not everywhere. The Earth is made of different layers, like an onion. The top layer is the crust and is the bit where we all live on. The bit below that is called the mantle. This is where the stuff that makes lava comes from.

      Despite what some movies may show you, the mantle is not an ocean of magma. It is actually a solid rock. But as soon as it comes near the surface it melts to make magma, which then comes out of the ground in volcanoes as lava.

      So you can get molten magma beneath the areas that have active volcanoes but usually not anywhere else. The largest area with magma under the ground by the the UK is in Iceland where a giant dome of molten magma lies beneath the country, a few kilometres deep. This is why Iceland has so many active volcanoes.

Comments