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 Liquid Rocks - How Magma Is Formed

Liquid Rocks - How Magma Is Formed
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 5 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.72

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    asthenosphere, divergent, lithosphere, outermost, subduction, tectonic, formation, tremendous, zone, lowering, pipes, commonly, factor, magma, mantle, rarely

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Liquid Rocks - How Magma Is Formed
By Patti Hutchison 		  
1     There are three states of matter commonly found on earth: solid, liquid, and gas. When something changes from the solid state to the liquid state, we say it has melted. Ice melts. Chocolate melts. But did you know that rocks can melt, too?
 
2     Hot, molten rock is called magma. Magma is a mixture of liquid rock, minerals, and dissolved gases. It is formed by the melting of earth's mantle. Magma is found deep below the surface of the earth. If you hold a chocolate bar in your hand, it will melt. But have you ever melted a rock? What causes hard, solid rock to melt?
 
3     Magma forms when rocks reach temperatures high enough to melt them. Most rocks begin to melt at a temperature between 800 and 1200 degrees Celsius. We rarely find temperatures that hot at earth's surface. (During a hot summer day, the air temperature is about 35 degrees Celsius.) But remember, temperature increases the farther you go below the surface.
 
4     Temperatures like these are found at the base of the lithosphere. This is the solid, outermost layer of the earth. It includes the crust and the upper mantle. Just below the lithosphere is the asthenosphere. This layer is partly molten rock. Temperatures here are also very hot.

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