What is lava made of and why is it so hot?
Rock's Glowing Journey
What is lava made of and why is it so hot?
When a volcano sneezes out a river of glowing orange goo, that goo has a name: lava. But here's the thing — lava isn't a special "volcano juice." It's just rock. Ordinary rock, like the kind you'd kick down a path. The catch is that this rock got so blisteringly hot it stopped being solid and turned into a slow, glowing liquid.
To understand lava, you have to go down. Way down. The Earth isn't solid all the way through like an apple — it's more like a peach. Thin skin on the outside, a huge soft layer underneath, and a hot pit at the very center. We live on the skin. Lava is born in the soft layer beneath our feet.
