Explosive volcano experiment: Get Your Little Scientist Thinking Big

Shield volcanoes

Shield volcanoes are generally not as tall as stratovolcanoes, although they can still reach great heights. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano on the planet Mars. It’s the largest volcano in the solar system at around 25 kilometres tall and 624 metres in diameter.

A shield volcano’s eruptions are usually gentle and non-explosive and are instead known for their lava flows and fountains. Shield volcanoes have runny lava (low viscosity) that travels further than the stickier lava of stratovolcanoes. This flowing lava results in the far-reaching, gently sloping sides of these volcanoes.

Mauna Kea is a dormant shield volcano in Hawaii. Its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii, at 4,207 metres above sea level © Nula666 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Shield volcanoes are typically located on hot spots found across tectonic plates rather than at the boundaries. The best known are the Hawaiian volcanoes such as Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and Kīauea.

Other volcanoes around the world also exhibit gentle Hawaiian eruptions. This type of eruption can produce lava fountains that can be hundreds of metres tall and travel at speeds of up to 100 metres per second.

Cinder cones

Cinder cones are relatively small volcanoes made from loose volcanic material. Most are short-lived and can grow on the sides of larger volcanoes. They typically form through an explosive eruption or lava fountain from a single vent.

One of the best known is Parícutin, a volcano that suddenly formed in a cornfield in Michoacán, Mexico, beginning in 1943. Due to its continuous strombolian eruptions, the volcano grew until its eruptions ceased in 1952. It had reached 300 metres tall.

Parícutin was the first time that volcanologists were able to document the full life cycle of a volcano. 

The cinder cone volcano, Parícutin, erupting in 1943 © Bodil Christensen via Wikimedia Commons

Supervolcanoes

The largest and most explosive volcanoes on Earth are popularly called supervolcanoes, although this isn’t a scientifically defined type of volcano. These enormous volcanoes produce giant calderas – volcanic craters formed by the collapse of the volcano itself when the magma chamber below was emptied by an eruption.

One of the most famous is Yellowstone in the United States, which has a caldera around 72 by 55 kilometres. The Yellowstone supervolcano last erupted around 630,000 years ago. 

The Yellowstone supervolcano is well known for its geothermal activity in the form of hot springs, fumaroles and geysers 

There are around 20 known supervolcano sites around the world. The most recent supereruption was of Taupo volcano in New Zealand around 26,000 years ago.

The eruption of the Indonesian supervolcano Toba around 73,000 years ago is also thought to have triggered a drop of 2-3 degrees Celsius in air temperature globally, causing a five- to seven-year volcanic winter. This eruption may have had an profound impact on the course of the human species.

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Best Volcano Science Experiments, as Recommended by Teachers

Is there any school science project more classic than the exploding volcano? Every generation of kids loves this explosive (and messy!) experiment, which is usually a take on acid-base reactions. Here are our favorite volcano science experiments and projects, along with some well-reviewed DIY kits that make the process easier.

(Just a heads up—WeAreTeachers may collect a small share of sales from links on this page. We only recommend items our team loves!)

1. Papier-mâché Volcano Experiment

Here it is, the original papier-mâché volcano! The volcano is built around a jar inside that holds the vinegar and baking soda for the eruption itself. Add a little dish soap to make the “lava” foamier and more impressive.

Learn more: Craft Cue

2. Salt Dough Volcano Experiment

Salt dough is a little easier to work with than papier-mâché, and you can make your volcano pretty realistic looking. Otherwise, the process is the same, and so is the fun!

Learn more: Teach Beside Me

3. National Geographic Ultimate Volcano Kit

Make things easier by getting all the supplies you need in a volcano science experiments kit. This one has thousands of positive reviews on Amazon and comes with a volcano mold you can use again and again.

Learn more: National Geographic Ultimate Volcano Kit/Amazon

4. Playdough Volcano Experiment

Want a quick version of the volcano experiment? Use playdough to build a volcano around a small beaker, then create the baking soda and vinegar reaction. Fast and fun!

Learn more: Life Over Cs

5. Snow Volcano Experiment

Volcano science experiments can be messy, there’s no doubt about it. That’s why this snow volcano is so brilliant! Take the mess outside and let nature help with cleanup.

Learn more: Science Sparks

6. Playz Volcanic Eruption & Lava Lab Science Kit

This volcano science kit comes with not one but two erupting volcanoes! There are enough supplies for multiple eruptions too.

Learn more: Playz Volcanic Eruption & Lava Lab Science Kit/Amazon

7. Lemon Volcano Science Experiment

Lemon juice is full of acid, so this fruit is the perfect material for volcano science experiments. Just add a little dish soap (and food coloring for fun). Then top with baking soda and watch the fizzy eruption! Enjoy this one? Try it with apples too!

Learn more: Lemon Volcano/Beyond the Playroom

8. Learning Resources Beaker Creatures Bubbling Volcano Kit

This kit is perfect for the younger crowd. It includes several different fizzing experiments, including a “reactor pod” that you drop into your volcano to reveal a collectible little Beaker Creature.

Learn more: Learning Resources Beaker Creatures Bubbling Volcano Kit/Amazon

9. Pop Rocks Volcano

Watch a volcano video and you’ll hear all sorts of popping and cracking sounds. You can recreate that effect in your DIY experiment by adding Pop Rocks candy to make a sound volcano!

Learn more: Growing a Jeweled Rose

10. Stemclas Volcano Science Kit

If you’re looking for a truly basic volcano kit, this is the one. No frills, no extras—just a model volcano and the materials you need to make it erupt.

Learn more: Stemclas Volcano Science Kit/Amazon

11. Rainbow Volcano Experiment

Lava can take on different colors depending on the temperature and chemical composition. So make a rainbow of fizzing “lava” of your own using food coloring!

Learn more: Green Kids Crafts

12. Underwater Volcano Experiment

Not all volcanos erupt on land—some are found underwater. This experiment uses the different densities of hot and cold water to make the volcano “erupt. ”

Learn more: Mombrite

13. Fizzing Volcano Lava Slime

Volcanoes plus slime? It’s every kid’s dream! Mix up some fizzing lava slime that’s much safer to play with than real molten lava! (Make this project even easier by getting all the supplies you need in the Volcano Slime Kit from KiwiCo.)

Learn more: Little Bins for Little Hands

14. Look Inside a Volcano Experiment

This volcano science experiment digs deeper, laying out items like the magma chamber, crater, and central and secondary vents. The eruption is impressive, and now you can see how happens!

Learn more: 123Homeschool4Me

15. Pumpkin Volcano Experiment

When is a pumpkin not a pumpkin? When it’s a volcano! This is an awesome project to take out onto the playground on a sunny fall day.

Learn more: Hillary’s Teaching Adventures

Want more hands-on science fun? Try these 16 Incredible Electricity Experiments.

Plus, get all the latest teaching tips and tricks straight to your inbox when you sign up for our newsletters!

“6 parishes were recorded in the Moscow region”: how the Tonga volcano was heard in Russia

– Did the waves from the volcano of the Tonga archipelago really reach Moscow, more than once?

– They reached not only Moscow, they circled the entire globe several times. The explosion was very powerful. Do you know that on October 30, 1961, the most powerful thermonuclear bomb of 58 megatons was tested on Novaya Zemlya? From her went, relatively speaking, “sound”, and he circled the globe twice. And this is not the only case. For example, when the Chelyabinsk meteorite exploded, one revolution around the globe was recorded.

– Why can we talk about sound only conditionally?

– Sound is longitudinal wave vibrations, when the particles of the medium inside the wave oscillate along its propagation. Sound travels at the speed of sound, which depends on the density of the medium, temperature and wind. But with powerful explosions, not only sound is generated, but also many other waves in the atmosphere.

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For example, internal gravitational waves (not to be confused with astrophysical gravitational waves. – Gazeta.Ru). Their occurrence is due to the interaction of the buoyant force of Archimedes and the force of gravity. The vibrations of particles in them no longer pass along the direction of propagation, but at an angle. The frequency of internal gravitational waves is such that their period is more than five minutes. These waves propagate at speeds much lower than the speed of sound.

– Did the barometric stations in Moscow register gravitational waves?

– No. With powerful explosions, the so-called intermediate wave is also generated. It is called in science the “fundamental oscillation mode” or, colloquially, the Lamb wave (although in the strict sense, Lamb waves propagate in solid plates or spheres). It is characterized exclusively by propagation along the earth’s surface, with zero vertical velocity. It spreads at the speed of sound, but with much longer periods of oscillation, more than the five minutes limit for sound.

It was this Lamb wave that was observed at stations around the world that recorded the explosion of the volcano. Gravitational waves, which also arose during the explosion, most likely did not reach Moscow.

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– A satellite image released by NASA shows ripples moving through the atmosphere above the volcano. What is it caused by?

– These are just internal gravitational waves, their characteristic appearance. As an analogy, imagine that you threw a pebble into the water, and circles went from it. Circles are the internal waves that exist in water. The same thing happens in the atmosphere, and if there are clouds, the waves will create characteristic ripples in them.

– If internal gravity waves can be thought of as circles on water, then what are Lamb waves like?

– There is no everyday analogy for them. They arise when solving the equation of hydrodynamics and during powerful explosions in the atmosphere; it is impossible to create their similarity by improvised means.

– How many times has the Lamb wave from a volcano circled the Earth?

– 6 arrivals of the Lamb wave were accurately recorded in the Moscow region. The first arrival corresponds to the direct propagation of the wave from the source to the observation point. The second is the so-called antipodal propagation, that is, the wave propagates in the opposite direction and comes from the other end of the Earth. The third arrival corresponds to one revolution around the globe of the direct wave. The fourth arrival is one turn of the antipodal, similarly with the fifth and sixth fixations. This is known for sure. Maybe more, but it is much more difficult to fix, because as it spreads, its amplitude decreases. And the natural noise at low frequencies is very significant.

— How did you manage to fix it? Does it look like a “dip” on the barograph chart?

– A single dip is only visible when using a conventional meteorological barograph. Its sensitivity does not allow to see multiple fluctuations. If you took a serious scientific instrument, you would see fluctuations, as in the usual recording of sound signals from distant explosions. Household barometer recorded only a “blurred” picture, an averaged maximum.

For example, a high-quality signal was given by microbarometers in Dubna – this is the IS43 station of the international infrasound monitoring system IMS of the implementation mode of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

– How often do Lamb waves form?

– At every major explosion that shakes the entire atmosphere. It is difficult to name the lower limit of the required power, no one has studied it. I can assume that several megatons are required. In this case, the explosion must occur at a suitable height so that the power does not go into the Earth and escape into space.

– How accurately can Lamb waves or gravitational waves determine the magnitude of an explosion or volcanic eruption?

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– From a geophysical point of view, very accurate. It is worth noting that this does not measure the full power of the explosion, but only the energy that went into the air. Not in the ground and not in the water. In other words, the power of an equivalent explosion is indicated, which would explode in the atmosphere and produce the same vibrations. The equivalent power of the explosion of this volcano reached about 200 megatons. This is several times larger than the largest nuclear explosion.

– Is it impossible to fix them without devices?

– It is impossible to hear such a wave. A person hears, relatively speaking, up to 20 hertz, and such waves have a frequency of thousandths of a hertz.

– Registration of a volcano explosion in the Tonga archipelago is not the only recent case of recording sound or other waves at an anomalous distance. Recently, Science magazine published an article about how the Americans, using a microphone on balloon , heard the rocket take off 400 kilometers away and announced that they had discovered a new atmospheric channel through which sound propagates hundreds of kilometers. Is this really a discovery?

– What is described there has nothing to do with the Lamb wave, much less with internal gravitational waves. There, the idea is simple: there is an acoustic ocean waveguide underwater. It exists due to the fact that at different depths, due to differences in density and salinity, the speed of sound is different. At a certain depth, a zone with a minimum sound speed is formed, and it serves as a horizontal waveguide, which allows you to hear the explosion of even a kilogram of TNT inside it at a distance of thousands of kilometers, but only if the source and receiver are located at a depth of this minimum. Imagine that from the explosion inside the waveguide, an acoustic beam went up at a small angle. Since the speed of sound is higher at the top, the beam will bend downward due to refraction, and eventually turn towards the bottom. And since the speed of sound also increases below the minimum, the beam will turn back in the direction of the level at which the source was located, and so many times.

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Researchers from America write that for a long time they believed in the existence of such a waveguide in the atmosphere, and finally found it . .. Although it is well known that there are many areas of sound speed minima in the atmosphere. That is, there are many waveguides similar to an oceanic waveguide in the atmosphere.

Note that such waveguides work effectively only if the sound source and receiver are on the axis of the waveguide – the horizon of the minimum sound speed.

There are at least three types of global waveguides in the atmosphere that operate when the sound source and receiver are located on the earth’s surface.

In a waveguide of the first type, the lower boundary is the earth’s surface, and the upper boundary is the sound speed maximum horizon, which is located at the upper boundary of the temperature inversion (increase), usually at a height of up to one kilometer. But since in atmospheric acoustics they operate with the concept of effective sound speed (the speed of sound plus the wind speed in the direction of propagation), the upper boundary of the surface waveguide depends significantly on the wind speed.

The waveguide of the second type also has a lower boundary on the earth’s surface, and an upper boundary on the horizon of the maximum effective speed of sound. Usually these are heights of 20-50 kilometers.

The third type of waveguide has an upper limit in the thermosphere at altitudes above 100 km.

Such waveguides have been known since the end of the century before last, when experiments were carried out with recording sound from volcanoes. And it was in these experiments that the stratosphere was discovered – a region of temperature increase with height at altitudes of more than 10 km.

– Are phenomena possible in which people would hear sound over great distances? For example, a small TNT explosion a thousand kilometers away?

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– I can tell you about personal experience. In 1981, in Kazakhstan, during an experiment on the study of magnetospheric-atmospheric relations during seismic phenomena, I was at a distance of 200 kilometers from an explosion with a capacity of 260 tons of TNT and heard it perfectly with my ears. Of course, this was due to the atmospheric waveguide. The sound bounced off the upper part of the atmosphere at an altitude of about 100 kilometers and returned back to Earth.

– Finally, is there any practical effect of Lamb waves or gravitational waves on our lives?

– Life is affected by fluctuations in atmospheric pressure. These waves are accompanied by fluctuations in atmospheric pressure. We had a publication where we just researched what you are asking about. According to our data, there is some relationship between pressure fluctuations and the frequency of admission of cardiovascular patients to hospitals.

Scientists have learned why and how the Kuril volcano Raikoke “woke up” after a century of calm – Search

On June 22, 2019, a strong eruption occurred on the Kuril Islands. The Raikoke volcano, only 551 meters high, threw out many kilometers of columns of ash and volcanic gases. Surprisingly, two ships happened to be near Raikoke then. People filmed what was happening on cameras, launched a drone, collected the ashes and brought all this material to scientists. The researchers concluded about the unusual causes of the eruption. The strength of the explosions was determined by the atmospheric and sea waters contained in the rocks of the volcanic structure.

The Raikoke Volcano is located on the island of the same name in the Greater Kuril Ridge. Actually, he is this island. Its previous eruptions took place in 1924 and 1778, and in 2019 the long period of inactivity of the volcano came to an end.

The ash column of the Raikoke volcano eruption on June 22, 2019 rose to the edge of the stratosphere. NASA photo

“If we consider the strength and intensity of eruptions, Raikoke is quite common for the middle part of the Kuril chain. The grandiose impression that the eruption made is due to the fact that only a small top of this volcano is above the water. It looks like a tiny island – 2 kilometers in diameter, 551 meters high. Imagine that such a small slide explodes and throws a huge amount of ash to a height of 13 kilometers. The question immediately arises, what is the reason for such a strong effect? – says the deputy director of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy. V. S. Soboleva SB RAS Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Sergey Zakharovich Smirnov. – In fact, under the water there is hidden a huge volcano with a height of about three thousand meters. In size, it is comparable to the Koryaksky and Avachinsky volcanoes, which rise near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. If you look at the historical past of Raikoke, then this is his third eruption. All the previous ones recorded in history were just as strong.”

The ash plume of the Raikoke volcano eruption on June 22, 2019, stretching for about 500 km. NASA photo

During its inactivity, Raikoke became covered with vegetation, animals and birds settled in it. There were many bird nests (they were even equipped in the crater), and there were sea lion rookeries. Just to count the last ones, on June 22, 2019, the Viking yacht came there. Also during the eruption, the Athena ship, making a tourist voyage around the Kuril Islands, turned out to be near the island. Its captain, Nikolai Nikolaevich Pavlov, managed to launch the drone and film the final stages of the disaster.

The Viking yacht was hit by maximum ashfall. The researchers collected the ashes, recorded what was happening on cameras, and when they returned to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, they turned to scientists from the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Those came to the ship and collected the ashes that fell during the eruption on the rigging, hull and sails of the yacht. The support of people not directly involved in volcanology has proven to be very valuable for scientists.

Emissions of ash from the crater of the Raikoke volcano break through the clouds, June 23, 2019of the year. Photo by N. N. Pavlov, East Tour Company, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

“It is thanks to their interest and courage that we have a unique material. Then he became different – it rained, something got mixed up, changed, reacted with each other. The ash collected right during the eruption allows us to find out what happened then, we can see this event almost in real time,” says Sergey Smirnov.

Also, the Raikoke eruption was recorded on their images by space satellites.

It would seem that the island of Raikoke is at the end of the world, but during the eruption next to it is not the first time people are. So, in 1778, Raikoke bombarded the canoe of the Cossack centurion Cherny, who, together with the Ainu companions, was returning from the island of Matua to Kamchatka with volcanic bombs. When this event became known on the peninsula, the new head of Kamchatka, collegiate assessor Franz Reinecke, sent centurion Ivan Sekerin to Raikok “to describe and position on the plan how the island consists of a breakthrough of a burnt hill. ” It was the first Russian volcanological expedition.

Scientists from the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kamchatka), the Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy named after A.I. V. S. Sobolev SB RAS and Novosibirsk State University. Also, researchers from the University of Tohoku (Japan) and the University of Helsinki (Finland) took part in the work.

Raikoke Volcano Island after the eruption, September 2019. Photo by N. N. Pavlov, East Tour Company, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

“The Kuril Islands are unique for Russia. We have three areas of active volcanism in our country: the Kuriles, Kamchatka and the Caucasus. On the last two volcanoes are located inside the continent. In the Kuriles we can study volcanism that occurs in the ocean. These volcanoes originated at the bottom of the sea, most of them are on it. Many, including active ones, are located under water. And, of course, it is very important for us to know how eruptions are formed in such conditions,” says Sergey Smirnov.

When the researchers began to study materials from Raikoke, they encountered a mystery: it turned out that the volatile components that usually determine the explosive nature of volcanic eruptions were few in magma. The researchers suggested that meteoric water, which was located directly in the volcanic structure, played one of the main roles here. The slopes of the volcano are covered with hardened lava, almost impervious to precipitation. At the same time, the vent is filled with fissured and porous material, the products of volcanic explosions. Rain and melt water easily saturate these rocks, and they fill up like a glass.

Meteoric waters are called groundwaters that arose due to the infiltration of precipitation and the melting of glaciers and snow. Sea waters are not meteoric. Therefore, in their model, scientists considered them separately.

Salty sea water seeped into the volcano. Typically, the slopes of marine volcanoes are armored with lavas and thus protected from the effects of salt water. But studies have shown that she took part in the last explosion of Raikoke.

“When we examined in detail the shape of the volcano, including its underwater part, it turned out that at a depth of 100 meters it has a flat terrace. This is probably the top of an underwater volcano that was active in antiquity. Then he calmed down, and resuming work, he built a new small cone on the edge of the underwater terrace – in the place where Raikoke Island is now located. Apparently, loose rocks that lay on the surface of this terrace became an aquifer through which sea water entered the vent, ”says Sergey Smirnov.

The surf was roaring here recently. The coast of Raikoke Island covered in ash from the 2019 eruption. Photo by N. N. Pavlov, East Tour company, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

How did it happen that water, which supposedly should extinguish the fire, led to an explosion? The scientists had at their disposal the results of a well-known experiment on the interaction of high-temperature melts with coolants. He showed: if you make magma instantly meet with water or rocks saturated with it, then an explosion will occur at the interface between these media. It will turn the liquid magma into the smallest dust, which will rush up, because there is less pressure than below. It is the interaction with meteoric waters that leads to the finest grinding of magmatic material in the volcano’s vent.

Researchers studied the products of the Raikoke eruption, determined the size of the ash particles, their shape, and found out what they are made of.

“The particle size of this eruption was 0.5-0.1 mm. Only an explosion caused by interaction with meteoric and sea waters could so finely grind the magma and the rock surrounding the vent. If the magma were crushed due to the internal energy of its own bubbles, then the size of the particles would be much larger. In addition, among the products of the eruption there would be many large fragments, which we call volcanic bombs. We did not observe the latter, from which it followed that the cause of the explosion was not in the magma itself, ”explains Sergei Smirnov.

How did the eruption happen? The top layer of the magma column in the Raikoke vent was very viscous. The more liquid and hot magma rising from below warmed it up and made it more mobile. He, in turn, quickly warmed up the water in the porous rocks that make up the bottom of the crater. It evaporated, the rocks exploded, and their fragments, just like a pipe, flew up.

“Most likely, the first explosion was purely gas,” notes Sergey Smirnov. “He destroyed the plug, causing the magma to rise higher, and salty water from the lower horizon leaked to it. There were several more explosions, throwing ashes to great heights. At the same time, not only the rocks of the volcano exploded, but also the magma itself. After the aquifers of the volcano dried up, the magma in the channel cooled down and again became a fixed plug. The paroxysmal phase, during which there were the most violent explosions, lasted ten hours. There were nine explosions in total – they were recorded from satellite images.

The slopes of the island and the coast, covered with hot ash, from under which jets of steam erupt, June 23, 2019. Photo by N. N. Pavlov, East Tour Company, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Scientists have confirmed participation in the eruption of sea water thanks to special particles called accretion balls, or accretion lapilli. If you throw hot debris up and make them move in a cloud of dust mixed with moisture, then over time they will begin to stick together. It has been shown that such globules are easily formed if salts are present in this moisture. In the ashes of Raikoke, researchers have found many such formations.

Since the last eruption, scientists from the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to organize only one expedition to Raikok. Heavy fog and rain interfered with the work of volcanologists. However, scientists noted that birds began to settle on the island again. The sea lions also returned there, which drove the researchers away from the rookeries, protecting their cubs.

“We want to study melt inclusions in minerals, which will allow us to decipher in detail the history of the processes occurring in the depths of the Kuril volcanoes. We have material on different islands, and we would like to create an overall picture for this island arc as a whole. First of all, explain the reasons for the high explosiveness of island volcanoes. This is interesting both from a fundamental point of view and from a practical point of view – to build models and make forecasts of similar events in the future, – says Sergey Smirnov. – The Kuril Islands today are a sore spot for monitoring volcanic activity. The network of geophysical stations located there is quite rare. For example, she did not record any forerunners of the Raikoke eruption, although they obviously were. In a good way, the number of stations should be increased. There are few people there, but in these places there are air routes through which flights between Russia, America, Japan and the countries of Southeast Asia are carried out, sea lines along which goods are transported, there is a lot of fishing. People may be exposed to danger during this activity. Local authorities should cooperate more closely with scientists of various specialties in order to keep abreast of the phenomena taking place on the most active outskirts of our country and be able to adequately predict their consequences.”

Experiment No. 18. Hydroperit: three foam volcanoes

for children | experiences | chemistry | experiments

AuthorTatyana Pirozhenko
March 25, 2022 June 9, 2022

Today there will be a classic in our “Experiments with Medicines”! No kids chemistry show is complete without it! A soda and vinegar volcano? No))) Today’s experience is more complicated and more dangerous. But he is very entertaining. And all the same medicines from the first-aid kit are needed for him. This time, the replacement of hydrogen peroxide, its analogue, which is also used for rinsing and washing wounds, is hydroperite.

All three of today’s reactions are variations of the one often shown on science shows. It is called “ Elephant Toothpaste ” or “ Elephant Toothpaste ” (Elephant’s Toothpaste).

But I personally don’t like this name – it hints that this “paste” can be taken by mouth. But no, you can’t, and it’s very dangerous! Because the foam for it is made from a concentrated solution of hydrogen peroxide.

Therefore, I prefer to call this experience “ Foam Volcano “.

Hydroperite is a clarate (compound of a special kind) of hydrogen peroxide with urea. In simple terms, this is the same hydrogen peroxide, only in dry tablets. And therefore, we can get a solution from it more concentrated than in pharmacy peroxide. And that’s what we need!
When conducting an experiment, it is important to observe safety precautions. Foam contains a lot of oxygen, and any spark can start a fire – stay away from fire sources with it.
And you also need to prevent skin or clothing from getting the ingredients of the experience and the foam itself. Therefore, it is better if young children only look at this experience, and do not touch anything themselves.
Seniors, of course, can already do it themselves – but they need to be convinced that hydroperite is not safe. Reactions with it occur exothermic ( that is, they go with the release of a large amount of heat). Therefore, the dishes and the foam itself can burn. And all sorts of different combinations of hydroperite with substances not intended for this can cause spontaneous combustion and even an explosion. Therefore, we do not deviate from the recipe and do not mix hydroperite with anything else!
And then everything will be spectacular, spectacular and safe 🙂

Experience demonstrates how as a result of a chemical reaction under the action of catalyst (a substance that accelerates the reaction, but is not consumed at the same time), a rapid multiple increase in the volume of substance can occur. This is due to the formation of foam that appears from the soap solution, and a large amount of oxygen released during the reaction.

Hydrogen peroxide itself would gradually decompose into oxygen and water, but the catalyst speeds up this process hundreds of times, and the reaction proceeds violently 🙂

In this experiment, we will have different catalysts each time: yeast , potassium permanganate and copper sulfate .

Let’s check which is better?

First, we make an aqueous solution of hydroperite. For each experiment, you will need 4 tablets, which are freely sold at the pharmacy. That is, all you need is 12 tablets of hydroperite.

It is necessary to grind them into powder, and then pour 75 ml of warm water (about 40 degrees) and stir until dissolved. And we will get an 8% hydrogen peroxide solution, and not 3% as in the pharmacy.

When the solution is ready, it must be divided into 3 parts – 25 mg for each of the subsequent experiments. Well, or 3 times make 4 tablets per 25 ml of water.