Stratovolcanoes are highly destructive, but are capable of uniquely preserving its surroundings.
NPS Graphic
For this activity:
Read about stratovolcanoes.
Complete the "lava" flow experiment below.
Volcanoes are openings called vents that allow for lava, rock fragments or debris, and steam to escape onto the earth's surface. Magma is molten rock beneath the earth's surface that is lighter than the surrounding rock and is able to rise to the surface.
A volcanic complex is a collection of similar types of volcanoes and their associated landforms, which are their natural features. The types of volcanoes that existed nearby the Florissant Fossil Beds area were composite or stratovolcanoes. The volcanic activity from these volcanoes contributed to the unique preservation of the ancient Eocene plants and animals of the area.
Get an aerial view of the Guffey volcanic complex, consisting of similar stratovolcanoes with respect to the location of the lake.
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Composite volcanoes are often referred to as stratovolcanoes. These types of volcanoes are usually what make up the tallest mountains we see, rising to heights of over 8,000 feet (2,400 meters). They are tall and steep because of repeated lava flows, volcanic ash, cinders, blocks and bombs, which are larger debris erupted from these volcanoes. These types of volcanoes are highly eruptive because of thick, silica-rich and gas content in its magma.
The once towering an explosive volcanoes have eroded down into small mounds as seen with the current landscape.
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The volcano vent connects to the magma chamber through various cracks or side vents, which allows for a continuous supply of magma to get erupted until there's no longer any magma left.
Pictured here are the remnants of the ancient Guffey volcanic complex which centered around a large stratovolcano or volcanic center.
Go with the "lava" flow
Create your own and race different types of "lava" flows. This experiment shows three different flows recreated using corn syrup. One flow will be of the straight corn syrup, another will have air bubbles blown into it, and the last one will have air bubbles and some dirt or crumbs in the mix to represent various debris in a volcanic flow.
Supplies Needed:
Safety Glasses & disposable gloves (optional)
Corn syrup
Food coloring
3separate containers
Straw
Gravel & dirt from outside or cookie crumbs
Flat cookie sheet lined with foil or paper & 2 inch tall block
Pen, paper & ruler
Stop watch
Make different types of "lava" flows using corn syrup at home! Green is flow 1, blue is flow 2 and red is flow 3. Flows 2 and 3 have air bubbles representing gases in a volcanic flow. Flow 3 also has dirt and small rocks which represent cinders, volcanic blocks and bombs in a real lava flow. In Flow 3, the bigger rocks stayed closer to the top where the flow started.
NPS / Astrid Garcia
Directions
Step 1
Put on your safety glasses and gather your supplies.
Step 2
Place a clean empty cookie sheet on a flat surface and place a ruler beside it. Using 3 separate pieces of either scrap paper or recycled cardboard, measure out a start line (0 inches) halfway mark (6 inches) and a final mark (12 inches). Take a flat object or block about 2 inches tall and prop up one end of the cookie sheet on top of it so that the sheet is slightly angled.
Step 3
Pour ¼ cup of corn syrup into each separate container. Using a different color for each, add 2 drops of food coloring into each container containing the corn syrup.
Have the same exact amount of corn syrup in each container in order to get a more accurate recording during your experiment.
Keep all of your corn syrup mixtures at the same room temperature.
At warmer temperatures these extremely small particles called atoms, which make up all matter, are more spaced out, energized and can easily move freely.
Whereas at colder temperatures, the atoms are closer together and packed.
Step 4
Set aside one container of the colored corn syrup, which is ready to go for the experiment. In both of the other two containers, take a straw and blow bubbles into each until you can see air bubbles in the corn syrup.
In the last container, create air bubbles and put in little pieces of gravel and dirt from outside or cookie crumbs into the corn syrup.
As you’re blowing air bubbles, don’t blow too hard because the corn syrup is thick.
Step 5
Place one of your measured start/finish scrap of paper or cardboard on top of the slightly angled cookie sheet.
Take the corn syrup representing your first flow and pour it all on top of the start line. At the exact moment you pour the flow, start a stopwatch.
When the flow gets to the halfway mark (6 inches), write down the time. When the flow gets to the finish mark (12 inches), write down the time.
Data table and graph. Each plotted line represents one of the flows in the experiment.
NPS / Astrid Garcia
Step 6
Record the times for each corn syrup flow in a table. Start at 0 seconds and 0 inches, next include your time at 6 inches, and finish with the time you recorded at 12 inches for each flow (3 flows in total).
Step 7
Using graph paper, draw an x- and y-axis. The x-axis will represent time in seconds and the y-axis will represent the distance travelled by the flow in inches. Label each axis. Mark 0 on the corner the axes meet. On the x-axis, the maximum value will be 270 seconds. On the y-axis, the maximum value will be 12 inches. Use a ruler to mark out equal-sized spaces on the axes.
Plot and label the points for each flow (x-value which is time in seconds, y-value which is distance in inches). A point on a plane, which is a 2D flat surface, has an x- and y-value indicated by (x,y). For each flow, you’ll have three points. Connect the points in a line.
Your finished graph will have three separate lines. Use a colored pencil to color each line. Draw a legend, which describes the data on your graph. You can also plot the lines for each flow in a spreadsheet program on a computer.
