Why Don’t Islands Sink?

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How do islands stay on top of water? Are they floating? If they are floating, what keeps them from sinking?

Cyrus reveals the true reason why they don’t sink and he uses a cake pop to prove it.

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Islands are floating, right?

They’re not actually floating at all! Islands only appear to be floating and to understand it better, we need to look at the layers of a cake pop… Er… I mean, the layers of the Earth.

Our Earth has layers like a Cake Pop

If you have ever had the privilege of eating a cake pop, you’ll notice it has two distinct layers. The frosting on the outside and the cake layer in the middle.

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Our Earth has layers, too! The outside layer, the one we all live on, is called The Crust and it wraps around our world like the frosting wraps around the cake pop. The cake part of the cake pop is like The Mantle of the Earth and it’s the most delicious… I mean, the thickest part of our planet.

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Don’t you just “lava” volcano?

Lava flows through the mantle of the Earth and pushes up on the crust. The lava pushes so hard, the ground moves up and forms volcanos!

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And volcano’s don’t just form on land. When they push their way up from the deep parts of the ocean, the very top part of the volcano becomes an island. The bottom portion of it is still attached to the crust of the earth. Another way volcanos are formed is when waves and wind wash away the land between the island and the coast.

A mountain below the ocean

Islands are not floating at all. They are actually mountains or volcanos that are mostly underwater. Their bases are connected to the sea floor. If an island does disappear under the ocean, it’s because the land underneath has moved or the bottom of the volcano has broken apart. But they simply can not sink.

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Credits