Maggie s Activity Pack

Transcription

1 Maggie s Activity Pack Name Date Nature Running Wild - Volcanoes! Everyone has heard of volcanoes. Often we think of them as producing rivers of red lava. But volcanoes do more than that. In this article you will learn about different kinds of volcanoes. You will read about the different types of damage and good that volcanoes do to the Earth. You will also learn how to make your own minivolcano! Before you read more about volcanoes, list some facts you already know about them.

2 Did you know there are different types of volcanoes? Did you know that many volcano eruptions happen under the sea? Read on to learn to learn more about volcanoes. Pay careful attention to the words in bold-faced print. They are important vocabulary words. After you read each section, see if you can go back and answer the heading question. How Did Volcanoes Get Their Name? Long ago people believed that a Roman god named Vulcan lived on an island in the Mediterranean Sea named Vulcano. It was believed that the lava and dust clouds on this island were from this blacksmith god s work. Today we know that the lava and dust are from volcanoes. How Does the Structure of the Earth Make Volcanoes? To help you picture our Earth, think about an apple cut in half from the stem. Our Earth has a core just like the apple. You can think of the white fruit of the apple as the earth s mantle. The skin of the apple is like the Earth s crust. Just below the crust are the tectonic plates of the Earth. These tectonic plates move very slowly. You can think of tectonic plates as pieces of an egg shell that have been broken with a spoon. They are constantly moving around.

3 What Causes Volcanoes? One important way volcanoes occur is when the tectonic plates move together or slide apart. It is where these tectonic plates meet that causes trouble such as volcanoes and earthquakes. There are many volcanoes under the ocean. Along the Pacific Ocean there is a ring of fire. This is an area where the ocean tectonic plates bump into the continental tectonic plates. Many underwater volcanoes happen in this area. Hot spots in the Earth s mantle are a third way volcanoes can be formed. These hot spots form the world s biggest volcanoes. The hot spots are very active areas. Hot spot volcanoes happen in the middle of plates. This makes them different than other kinds of volcanoes. If you live on the island of Hawaii, you have two of the largest hot spot volcanoes in your area Kilauea and Mauna Loa. How Do Volcanoes Hurt People and Places? These erupting mountains spew rocks, ash and gas into our air. Magma, from the mantle of the Earth, forces its way through cracks in the tectonic plates and bursts to the surface. When the magma reaches the earth s surface, it cools and becomes lava. The rocks that are spewed from the volcano can be different sizes. They spurt out of the volcano with great intensity and cause death and destruction for people and nature around the mountain. Lava flows are not as dangerous. Often these flows travel at just a few miles per hour. People can get out of the way, but plants and trees will be harmed.

4 Another way volcanoes cause trouble is through the emission of very small pieces of ash. The air is filled with tiny particles and breathing is difficult. Many people die from suffocation. This was the cause of many deaths when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. A huge ash cloud caused over 2,000 residents of Pompeii to die. As years passed, this ash made the soil very fertile. Crops such as grapes, oranges, and olives thrive in this area today. But, too much ash can make the soil unsuitable for farming. It can also hurt our planet s climate. The ash may filter out sunlight. Temperatures on Earth are lowered. This means some plants and animals may die. Another way volcanoes can be killers is through the poisonous gases that are emitted. A volcano in western Africa in 1986 killed 1,700 people because of a carbon dioxide cloud. What Can Be Done About Volcanoes? Today many scientists are researching volcanoes. They are working on ways to predict volcanic eruptions. They measure ways the earth s environment is affected by volcanoes, and they are working on ways to help people who live near active volcanoes.

5 Thinking About It Write the answer to each heading question on the lines. You may reread the section, but be sure to use your own words. 1. How Did Volcanoes Get Their Name? 2. How Does the Structure of the Earth Make Volcanoes? 3. What Causes Volcanoes?

6 4. How Do Volcanoes Hurt People and Places? 5. What Can Be Done About Volcanoes? Making Your Own Mini-Volcano You can make a model of a mini-volcano to help you better understand how a real volcano might look. Here are the materials you will need: A large container for your experiment A small soda or water bottle Modeling clay Baking soda Vinegar Dish detergent Red and yellow food coloring Tablespoon Mixing cup

7 Directions: Clean out the bottle. Cover it with modeling clay so it looks like a mountain! Mix together about 7 tablespoons of baking soda and detergent. Put in the food coloring. Be sure it is runny yet thick. Put about 5 tablespoons of this gooey mixture into the bottle. Then slowly pour about 8 or 9 tablespoons of vinegar into the bottle. Thinking About It: What happened when you poured the vinegar into the volcano? What happened to your lava as it ran down the side of the mountain?

8 Dear Colleague, This is one of my favorite classroom activities. I always had each student make his or her own volcano. The entire class would tramp outside on a nice day and one-by-one, students would erupt their volcano. We would ohhh and ahhh and I took digital photos of each volcanic eruption complete with each budding scientist dressed in lab coat and safety glasses. This made a fantastic addition to endof-the-year report cards. A picture is worth a thousand words, and these photos went a long way toward depicting all the hands-on science we did in first grade! I had a group of pre-teachers, who did this same activity in a reading practicum course. They correlated this activity with a literature unit using Mary Pope Osborne s, Vacation Under the Volcano. The children loved this cross-curricular connection! Happy teaching, Kathy Goals: Students read an article about the Giant s Causeway in Northern Ireland where unusual rock formations are the result of underwater volcanoes. Students read about this geologic phenomenon and demonstrate their comprehension by unscrambling factual sentences and writing their own glossary using the scientific vocabulary presented in the article. This activity is available on two levels, primary and intermediate. The activity correlates with Content Standard D, Earth and Space Science, and Content Standard F, Science in Personal and Social Perspectives, of the National Science Standards.