Where Does Lava Come From? A Simple Explanation for 8-Year-Olds

Lava is something really cool that comes from volcanoes! To understand where it comes from, let’s break it down step by step:

1. The Earth’s Layers: Imagine the Earth as a big ball with different layers. The outside is called the crust, which is where we live.
2. The Mantle: Beneath the crust is a thick, gooey layer called the mantle. This layer is super hot and is made of rocks that can melt into liquid.
3. Melting Rocks: When the rocks in the mantle get really, really hot (even hotter than a pizza oven!), they melt and turn into a hot liquid called magma.
4. Volcanoes: Now, sometimes, this magma finds a way to escape through cracks in the crust. When it reaches the Earth's surface, we call it lava!
5. What Happens Next: When lava flows out of a volcano, it can cool off and harden into rocks, forming new land! So, lava is just melted rock that comes from deep inside the Earth when a volcano erupts.

So, in summary, lava comes from super hot melted rocks in the mantle of the Earth that escape through volcanoes!