Volcanic plug
Okay kiddo, so you know how volcanoes are big mountains that can explode and shoot out hot rocks and ash, right? Well, sometimes when a volcano explodes, it leaves a little piece of rock stuck in the middle. That rock is called a volcanic plug!
It's sort of like if you made a sandcastle and then took out a little piece in the middle and left it there. Except instead of a sandcastle, it's a big mountain made of rock from inside the Earth.
The volcanic plug is usually made of a very hard kind of rock called basalt or rhyolite. The reason it's left behind is because the volcano erupted all the softer, weaker rock around it, but the plug was too tough to blow away.
Volcanic plugs are kind of like bookmarks in the history of a volcano. They show us what the volcano used to look like before it blew up, and they give us clues about what kinds of rocks were inside it. People also like to hike up to them and take pictures, because they're usually very interesting and unique-looking!
It's sort of like if you made a sandcastle and then took out a little piece in the middle and left it there. Except instead of a sandcastle, it's a big mountain made of rock from inside the Earth.
The volcanic plug is usually made of a very hard kind of rock called basalt or rhyolite. The reason it's left behind is because the volcano erupted all the softer, weaker rock around it, but the plug was too tough to blow away.
Volcanic plugs are kind of like bookmarks in the history of a volcano. They show us what the volcano used to look like before it blew up, and they give us clues about what kinds of rocks were inside it. People also like to hike up to them and take pictures, because they're usually very interesting and unique-looking!