How To Build A Volcano

Building a volcano is a fast and simple way to view the principles of a real volcano up close and personal without really dealing with the dangerous gases and molten lava a real volcano causes. So if you are interested in building a volcano or you are required to make one as a science project or something, here is all you have to know to make one using things found in your home.

Required Tools
Brushes

Required Materials
6 cups of flour
2 cups of salt
4 tablespoons of cooking oil
2 cups of tap water
Warm water
Baking soda
Red food coloring
Dishwasher detergent
Vinegar
Baking dish/plywood
Plastic soda bottle (2 liter or smaller)
Paint
Plastic decorations (trees, shrubs, rocks, etc)

Instructions
Begin with the dough, which will become the mountain of the volcano. You can purchase play dough or some other kind of ready-made dough if you choose but because these guidelines are for materials you probably have readily available at home. You can make your own dough using the flour, salt, cooking oil and tap water. Your dough should be smooth and firm so that it is easy to shape.
Set the baking dish/plywood on a flat surface as the base of your volcano (a baking dish may be best as it will hold the lava when it overflows and reduce the quantity of lava you have to wipe up).

Put the soda bottle on the base you choose and begin shaping the dough around it to make a mountain. If you do not have enough dough to wad the mountain and make it as big as you would like you can place cardboard, wads of newspaper or like things around the sides of the bottle to take up some of the space.
Take the cover off the bottle if you have not already done so and carry the dough all the way up to the mouth of the bottle so that the bottle is completely unseen. You can create trenches in the side of the mountain for lava to run down, or whatever else you choose to make the mountain more real.

Let the dough-mountain to dry totally and then use brushes to paint the mountain or spray it with spray paint. You can then place the plastic decorations around the mountain and on the sides to decorated it to your choosing, then it is time to move on to the eruption of the volcano.

Fill the bottle to about three quarter with the warm water and put in the red food coloring. Add about 6 drops of the dishwashing detergent to make the foam part of the volcano, 2 tablespoons of baking soda, and then throw about a quarter cup of the vinegar inside the bottle and stand back and witness the explosion take place!

You can use and reuse the volcano as many times as you wish, all you have to do is use a rag to clean up the lava flow and it is ready to go again.

Tips and Warnings
Be careful not to drop dough inside the bottle as you construct the mountain since the dough can interfere with the mix used to make the volcano explode.

The water in the bottle does not have to be hot but the warmer it is, the greater the explosion will be.

If you want orange-colored lava, add a few drops of yellow food coloring along with the red coloring in the bottle.

Add more than 2 tablespoons of baking soda if you desire an even larger explosion but be prepared for the extra clean up!

Do not attempt to close the bottle after you put in the vinegar because pressure may build up within the bottle and make it explode.