Fire meets water

Volcano Island

Follow molten rock from the crater to the ocean. Every flow leaves a new layer of island.

0new land · area units

0%lava turned to rock

Erupting

Lava supply 24 units/s Lava thickness Medium Cooling 1×

View Show steam & vent plume

Try a thick flow, then restart with thinner lava. Stop the eruption to watch it cool. Drag to orbit · Scroll to zoom.

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Volcano Island

Send lava from a crater to the sea. Watch it cool into rock, build a new coastline, and reshape the island with every eruption.

Glowing lava at the crater and shoreline of a dark volcanic island surrounded by a muted teal ocean.

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Lava is molten rock that reaches the surface. Follow it out of the crater, down the slopes, and into the sea, where new land can form.

Gravity carries lava downhill. Thick lava moves more slowly, while runny lava spreads more easily.
Fresh lava glows. As it loses heat, it darkens and turns into solid rock.
Seawater cools lava quickly. Rock builds up from below the water until it becomes new coastline.
Each eruption leaves rock behind. Later flows follow the changed landscape, so the island keeps evolving.

Try this: Stop the eruption and watch the lava cool. Then erupt again over the new rock. Compare runny and thick lava after restarting with the same seed. This is an accelerated illustration, not a forecast of a real volcano.