I made this volcano a month ago it just sat on our dining room table forever! It is raining now down here in Charlotte! So we had to do the eruption in our screened porch! At first I told my assistant Miss Anna Sears to stand back, i did to but nothing was happening! So I duped the 1/4 of a cup of white vinegar like I was supposed to then it erupted fully like I wanted it to! The camera ran out of batteries so I only captured the beginning of the eruption! I had to do this project because I'm studying Rome and Mt. Vesuvius, so I built the volcano model with my two fine assistants Miss Glamorous Liz and Miss Anna Sears they are wonderful assistants! If you want to make your own the recipe is at the bottom. Some people just skipped the dough which is a little expensive and just ask their neighbor for a soda bottle and just do the eruption part! Its really fun!
Step 1: Make the Volcano Surface
First, you'll need to make a batch of play dough, which you'll use to form a realistic volcanic surface on your model.
Ingredients
6 cups flour
2 cups salt
4 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cups water
Food coloring
Instructions:
Mix the flour, salt, cooking oil and water by hand (no electric mixers!) in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth and firm to the touch.
Add a few drops of the food coloring of your choice in order to give the dough its desired color. Remember, this dough is going to form the outer surface of your volcano, so feel free to make it look as realistic or as wild as you want!
Once you're finished with the dough, set it aside and get to work on assembling the model itself.
Materials:
1 cardboard box or sheet of plywood
1 liter soda bottle, clean and empty
Old newspapers
Tape or glue
Homemade play dough (see recipe above)
Rolling pin
Water
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon dish soap
Food coloring
1/4 cup white vinegar
Step 2: Assemble the Volcano
Instructions
Take your cardboard box or sheet of plywood, and set it on a large, flat work surface.
Place your soda bottle in the middle of the box or sheet of plywood; it will probably help to make sure the bottle is attached to the box or plywood, either by taping it down or gluing it firmly.
Don't worry about looks at this point - the bottle will soon be completely covered!
Roll up the old newspaper or other scraps of paper into tight balls.
Place the balls around and up the soda bottle, sticking them together with tape or glue as you work, in order to form a conical volcano shape and conceal the bottle.
Lay the play dough on a flat surface and roll it with your rolling pin until you've formed a thin sheet large enough to drape over your volcano.
After placing the sheet of play dough over the model, make sure you remove the dough just over the opening of your soda bottle, so you have a hole in the top of the model.
Enhance your model by adding detail! This is your chance to get creative. You could spray paint sections of your volcano brown or green, make trees or people out of any remaining dough, paint red streams starting at the opening of the volcano and traveling down the mountain to symbolize lava flow, make ridges and channels in the dough to create texture - anything you want!
Allow the model time to dry. (This could take up to 24 hours if you've added paint, so plan ahead if you're making this for a school project.)
After the model is dry and you're ready for the grand finale, measure 1 tablespoon of dish soap, 1 tablespoon of baking soda, a few drops of food coloring (try red) and a small amount of water into the opening of your soda bottle.
Finally, the moment you've been waiting for:
The eruption! When you're ready for your volcano to erupt, add 1/4 cup of white vinegar into the soda bottle, and stand back!
You've just witnessed the chemical reaction that occurs between a base (the baking soda) and an acid (the vinegar); the eruption results from the release of the carbon dioxide gas that is created, just as it does in real volcanoes.
