• Question: where does lava come from?

    • Keywords:
      • Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
      Asked by jazz to James, Elizabeth on 6 Mar 2015.
      • Photo: Elizabeth Cooper

        Elizabeth Cooper answered on 6 Mar 2015:


        Lava comes out of a volcano when it explodes! Lava is just rock which has been melted. Lava is formed underneath the surface of the Earth because the temperature is really hot so it melts any rock.

      • Photo: James Coombs OBrien

        James Coombs OBrien answered on 9 Mar 2015:


        It comes from the centre of the earth and rises to the surface out of volcanoes.

        It is also incredibly hot. It can be anywhere between 700 to 1200 degrees centigrade. Just think, when it’s summer we hardly every get temperatures above 25 degrees centigrade, imagine how hot 1200 degrees centigrade is!

        It really is amazing stuff. It is liquid (molten) rock and when it cools it forms solid rock. So there are actually some islands which are slowly growing because of lava pouring into the sea, cooling and becoming rock.

    Comments