Why do volcanoes erupt?
Earth's Hot Breath
Why do volcanoes erupt?
Deep under your feet, beneath the ground where roots reach and worms burrow, beneath the bedrock and caves, there's something you can't see: heat. Not campfire heat—heat like the heart of a star, locked inside the planet. Most of the time it stays down there, patient as a sleeping giant. But sometimes, it finds a crack.
Here's the thing about rock: it's not as solid as you think. When rock gets hot enough—and we're talking thousands of degrees—it softens into a slow-moving goo called magma. Imagine honey heated on a stove, thick and glowing. That's what's happening miles below, in a layer called the mantle. The magma doesn't just sit there. Heat makes it restless. It rises.
