Volcano in a Cup

Model Re-Enactment of How a Volcano Works.

[Caution: take precautions as hot water, hot wax and a heat source are involved]

1. Put some wax in the bottom of a fireproof glass container.

2. Add some sand.

3. Fill it up with cold water.

4. Now carefully heat the bottom.

Eventually, the wax underneath starts to boil (representing the molten rocks under the Earth's crust) and it begins to lift the whole landscape above in a dome shape.

Then, the moment of truth - the pressure becomes too much and at the weakest point, where the sand has bubbles, the hot wax shoots out in a lovely volcanic explosion.

The entire wax reservoir empties and you get a lovely effect of a flattened top as well, representing how material from the volcanic explosion forms a layer of ash in the atmosphere.