Volcano Lab: Online Activity

Use a free online Volcano Lab simulation to investigate how magma properties, gas escape and pressure influence volcanic behaviour.

Volcano Lab turns volcanic eruption science into a structured classroom investigation. Students use the Dig Earth Studio Volcano Lab interactive model to change key magma and conduit conditions, make predictions, collect observations and explain why different volcanic systems behave differently.

Students investigate how:

silica affects magma viscosity
temperature affects viscosity
crystals increase effective viscosity
dissolved volatiles contribute to the volcanic gas supply
restricted gas escape can increase pressure
combinations of these factors influence eruption behaviour

The activity encourages students to think in terms of cause and effect rather than simply memorising volcano types.

This resource includes:

Student Activity Pack
Answer Key
Teacher Guide
access to the free browser-based Volcano Lab interactive experiment

Activities include predictions, controlled tests, observations, data interpretation, explanation questions and a final knowledge check.

Suitable for Earth science, volcanoes, plate tectonics and physical geography topics in secondary science and geography.