How to make a volcano erupt without using vinegar and baking soda?

Question

My friend has a science project where she has to make a volcano and have it erupt. The trick is that she can't use vinegar and baking soda to make it erupt. The kind of volcano she has to make needs to erupt calmly and kinda of just ooze out, no violent explosions.

Answer 1

she needs to make her own volcano., let's say., out of molding clay., or maybe., use a cardboard to make a cone, cover it with clay, punch a hole on top and place a test tube inside with its mouth on the tip of the volcano., half-fill the test tube with baking soda. powder i think., when your setup is complete, pour your vinegar on your test tube and your volcano will erupt. white stuff will ooze out.
to make it more realistic, try putting red or orange food color in your vinegar so that it will look like lava., I'm not pretty sure about the idea of putting food color on your vinegar but I've already tried putting vinegar on baking soda/powder i think, and it works.

Answer 2

In Geology a volcano doesn't erupt because of vinegar and baking soda. it erupts because of excessive heat. You might try something like fashioning out a volcano from modeling clay and putting a tray under it with colored mineral or vegetable. Find some way to heat the oil, possibly a coffee cup heater, and it might ooze out of the volcano after a while.

Answer 3

The best book for young people about geology is How the Earth Works (see reference below). It contains a few excellent demonstrations on how volcanoes work. It does not have plans for constructing a model of a volcano (it does contain a description of the types of volcanoes which is a good place to start). I can suggest a few options for your daughter. She could construct models of the different types of volcanoes (composite, cinder cone, and shield) using clay (with sheets of clay as lava flows and small balls of clay as fragmented lava (ash)). She could make a cinder cone from cinders bought from a local garden store (maybe held together by gravity or spray glue). She could make a generic volcano out of cardboard, newspaper, tape, and foil. Wad up small pieces of newspaper into balls 1-2 inches in diameter. Tape these to a 8x10 piece of cardboard and build up your volcanic cone (leave a crater at the summit if you wish). Once the cone is built, cover it with foil to make the surface smooth. If she wants to jazz it up, paint it black, gray, or brown (what ever dark spray paint you find in the garage). You can even use spray glue to attach sand or cinder to the surface of the volcano.