Pew Pew Pew

Aim: Make a volcano... But it's a cake

Equipment: (We doubled this because we made two cakes :D)
1 cup Chelsea White Sugar
125g butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
Baking stuff

Method: (from Chelsea Sugar)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and flour a 23cm x 23cm cake pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla essence.
3. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally, stir in the milk until mixture is smooth. Pour or spoon into the prepared pan.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. The cake is done when it springs back to the touch.
5. Make some icing. Try and make it brown. Or green. Or something.
6. Try your best to carve out the shape of the volcano and icing appropriately. Cake art.
7. Carve out a crater and shove some m&m's inside. 
8. Eat it because of cake. 

Results:

...Actually, you don't want to see what we made... It's not the prettiest things I've ever made but it'll suffice for now.

I didn't do the main decoration with the fondant, that was Jakita. I did, however, carve it and let me say it's not the easiest feat ever.

Discussion:

Volcanoes are formed when convergent boundaries occur. Convergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates come together, they either subduct or push up. To form a volcano, a convergent boundary will need to subduct. Subduction is when the more dense crust of the earth is pushed under the less dense crust. This less dense crust is the earth/crust we live on, continental crust. The denser crust is the oceanic crust. In the case of a volcano, the oceanic crust is forced under the continental crust and creates a trench that begins to meet the Earth's mantle, the 2nd layer down from the top. The plate is pushed down to the mantle is slowly melting, and as it melts it begins to get less dense. The now-liquid rock, magma, forces its way through the continental crust's cracks and weaknesses and begins to build pressures inside of the Earth. When that pressure is released, the liquid rock explodes up into the surface. When magma reaches the surface, it's called lava. Lava cools and becomes a new layer of crust. After many explosions like this, the new layers of the crust start to form the classic volcano shape.

Did you know there's actually more than one type of volcano? There are three main different kinds. These are known as composite (or strato), shield, and dome. Composite volcanos are steep-sided volcanos that can reach up to and over 8000 feet. Pyroclastic flows (flows of ash, rock, steam and, dust) are more likely from this kind of volcano rather than full-on eruptions with lava bombs. Mount Fuji is a composite volcano. Sheild volcanos are a lot less steep, and their eruptions are a lot less explosive but frequent and more gentle. Lava tends to rapidly fall down the sides rather than explode upwards. They rarely lead to deaths. An example of a shield volcano is Mount Kilauea. Last but not least, dome volcanoes. Dome volcanos are steeper than shield volcanos due to their (acid) lava being slower, thicker, and stickier than shield volcanoes' lava. This causes the lava to not be able to go very far before cooling and steepening the sides of the volcano. 

Talking about types of volcanos, each volcano is usually formed by different kinds of magma cooling to form different kinds of rocks. Basalt magma usually forms shield volcanos, andesite or rhyolite (depending on how much gas is contained) magma form domes or composite volcanoes and so on. Here are some rocks you can find associated with volcanoes. Basalt is formed from pyroclastic flows, it cools quickly outside of the volcano hence it's holes. Pumice is similar, but it's cools when it's thrown out of the volcano and has more holes because of. Andesite is similar to basalt too but contains less iron and more silica. Rhyolite is lighter than the rest as it contains a lot more silica and a lot less magnesium and iron. Pumice is actually a kind of rhyolite! Ignimbrite is also formed by pyroclastic flows but contains a lot of combined pumice fragments, so it's kind of a sedimentary rock but still.

Everyone knows that erupting volcanos are dangerous. I mean, extremely hot lava is either pouring or exploding out of the top with extrusive rocks like pumice flying everywhere. So erupting volcanos should be avoided at all costs, but how safe are volcanos when they're not erupting? Well, it depends on the state of the volcano. If it's extinct, meaning it hasn't erupted in over 10s of thousands of years and has no sign of ever doing so again, it poses no real threat. However, if it's dormant (it's active and it's possible it could erupt) or active (has erupted in the last 10,000 years) the same can't be said. 

The most obvious threat is an active volcano erupting. Excessive heat from the lava, consequential fires, the gases released, landslides, it's crazy. 
    Lava, while destroying (well, melting) most things it touches, can cause fires that can spread to places further away from where the spewing lava can touch. It can kill any people, animals or plants in its way and can cause a famine if any surrounding people rely on said animals or plants as the main food source. The bigger the eruption, the more catastrophic the damage can be. In 1883, Krakatoa destroyed entire villages and killed over 36,000 people.
    Stronger volcanos can release hydrogen chloride, sulphur dioxide, ash and other materials into the atmosphere. Usually, it's fine as these mostly blow away, but the heavier gases can stay low and cause respiratory problems or other health issues in locals. Same goes for ash, which can also darken skies, hurt air quality, contaminate water, coat highways, cover yards and ground aeroplanes. The whole breathing stuff particularly affects older people, infants, people with lung diseases or other lung problems like asthma but anyone should be cautious. 
    Landslides can completely change the landscape around a volcano. When landslides can move dirt up to 100km/h, it could destroy nearby villages. Pretty scary stuff. Not too harmful to us as humans but the consequences following or someone happening to get in the way is a different story.