How Volcanoes Work
Satellite radar has hinted at two active magma reservoirs beneath Masaya volcano in Nicaragua, close to about two million people. To understand what that means, this film starts deep inside the Earth: why the mantle is solid yet melts in three special places, why most volcanoes ring the Pacific, why silica and gas decide between a lava river and an explosion, what a magma chamber and a caldera are, how eruptions are measured, what makes them deadly, and how scientists watch a volcano swell. Choose how magma melts, mix your own magma, empty a chamber and inflate one under a satellite.
Fire from a solid Earth
A volcano near two million people, watched from space.
Hot, but solid
The mantle is not a sea of lava.
Three places, two ways to melt
Release the pressure, or add water.
The Ring of Fire
Where plates sink, volcanoes rise.
Sticky and fizzy
Two things decide how a volcano erupts.
Ooze or explode
Mix a magma and erupt it.
A place to gather
Magma collects in the crust before it erupts.
When the roof falls in
Empty the chamber and the summit collapses.
Ten times bigger, each step
A scale for explosive eruptions.
The giants next door
Two Indonesian eruptions the world remembers.
What kills
Hot avalanches, falling ash, mudflows and gas.
A cooler world
The biggest eruptions shade the whole planet.
Reading the warning signs
Earthquakes, swelling and gas.
Rings of colour
A satellite sees the ground rise by centimetres.
Fire from a solid Earth
Melt, rise, gather, erupt, and watch.
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