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Magma vs Lava Training Center

Ari Raider's Training Materials · Lava Safari · Training Center 2 of 6

Magma vs Lava

Eruption River is backing up over its banks, and the channel gates only open for someone who knows the two names of the same melted rock — and when each applies.

What you're training for

At Eruption River, a dam of clinker is choking a river of melted rock. The gates open for whoever can sort every scene into magma or lava. Train here first; prove it in the simulation.

The science

  • Melted rock underground is magma. The moment it reaches the surface it becomes lava. Same stuff, different name.
  • Magma waits in a chamber under a volcano, rises up the pipe, and exits through the vent — crossing the name line on the way.
  • Magma that cools slowly underground makes intrusive rock like granite; lava that cools at the surface makes extrusive rock like basalt.
  • The name test is one question: can the sky see it? If yes, it's lava.

Teach it today — no prep

The name line. Stretch a line of tape across the floor: below is underground, above is the surface. Read scenarios — "melted rock in a chamber", "a glowing river in open air", "rock rising up the pipe" — and students step to the right side and shout the right name. Ten rounds and the distinction is permanent.

Trained and ready? Prove it at Stop 2 — Eruption River. Free, no logins, progress saved on the device.

Enter the Realm at Stop 2

Resources in this training center

Worksheets, reading passages, flashcards and printables for this lesson are being added — new resources land here first. Get one email a month when they do, or browse the whole free library.

The hands-on half: the Lava Safari Adventure Kit puts six real specimens, six Digs, six Gemlings and the Realm map in your students' hands — $19.99, or $15 a student for classrooms.

More Lava Safari training

Basalt Columns · Magma vs Lava · Cooling Speed · Volcanic Gases · Eruption Types · Why Lava Glows · Enter the Adventure →

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