If you’ve ever been to a kids science fair, you’re bounding to see an exploding volcano! In this week’s Sunday Science Tidbit, we decided to put the volcano to the test!

Volcanoes erupt due to the pressure of the magma, or liquid rock, underneath the crust of the Earth. When the pressure gets to be too much, the volcano can erupt resulting in an ash cloud and extremely hot lava over 2000° F!. Luckily, our experiment will be much cooler and safer than the real-world volcanoes.

I’ve enlisted the help of Kelly Byrne and Patrick Quinn this week.

Here’s what you’ll need:

– Baking soda

– Vinegar

– Food coloring

– Dish detergent

– Beaker/Vase

– Cake pan (to contain the mess)

– Paper towels (to clean up any mess)Watch the video above for the experiment.

Here’s the science behind the volcano. Remember the PH scale with acids and bases? Well sodium bicarbonate aka baking soda is a base and vinegar is an acid. When you mix the two you get a chemical reaction creating an unstable mixture.  It breaks apart the water and carbon dioxide resulting in a fizz which spews out of the beaker!

If you’re creative, you can make a volcano around the beaker and have a collaboration between science and art!

~ Meteorologist Candice Boling

{Information courtesy of usgs.gov.http://www.weatherwizkids.com/, http://www.sciencekids.co.nz}

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