ELI5: How do volcanoes erupt?

Imagine the Earth is like a giant pot of soup, always cooking! Deep inside, it's super hot and melty. This melty rock is called magma.

• Think of the Earth's crust, the ground we walk on, as the lid on that pot. But the lid isn't one solid piece, it's made of giant puzzle pieces called tectonic plates. These plates are slowly moving around.

• Sometimes, these plates bump into each other or slide past each other. This can create cracks or weak spots in the Earth's crust.

• When the magma finds a crack or weak spot, it starts to push its way up.

• As it rises, the pressure on the magma decreases. It's like opening a soda bottle – the gas inside bubbles out! This gas in the magma makes it even more explosive.

• The lava can flow like a river, or it can explode into the air with ash, rocks, and gas!

• Over time, as the lava cools and hardens, it builds up around the vent, forming the cone-shaped mountain we know as a volcano.