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The word lava comes from Italian and is probably derived from the Latin word labes, which means a fall or slide. [2] [3] An early use of the word in connection with extrusion of magma from below the surface is found in a short account of the 1737 eruption of Vesuvius, written by Francesco Serao, who described "a flow of fiery lava" as an analogy to the flow of water and mud down the flanks of ...
Pele's tears (closest Hawaiian translation: "nā waimaka o Pele") are small pieces of solidified lava drops formed when airborne particles of molten material fuse into tearlike drops of volcanic glass. Pele's tears are jet black in color and are often found on one end of a strand of Pele's hair.
The thickness of a basalt lava, particularly on a low slope, may be much greater than the thickness of the moving lava flow at any one time, because basalt lavas may "inflate" by supply of lava beneath a solidified crust. [31] Most basalt lavas are of ʻAʻā or pāhoehoe types, rather than block lavas.
The magma, which is brought to the surface through fissures or volcanic eruptions, rapidly solidifies. Hence such rocks are fine-grained or even glassy. Basalt is the most common extrusive igneous rock [9] and forms lava flows, lava sheets and lava plateaus.
As the lava flowed across the wet sod, the water of the marsh started to boil, the vapour rising through the lava forming lava pillars from drainpipe size up to several meters in diameter. [4] As the lava continued flowing towards lower ground in the Mývatn area, the top crust collapsed, but the hollow pillars of solidified lava remained. The ...
Magmatism is the emplacement of magma within and at the surface of the outer layers of a terrestrial planet, which solidifies as igneous rocks. It does so through magmatic activity or igneous activity, the production, intrusion and extrusion of magma or lava. Volcanism is the surface expression of magmatism.
A lava spine (or lava spire) is a vertical growth of solid lava that is forced from a volcanic vent. A lava spine can either be formed by viscous lava slowly being pushed out of the vent, or by magma that has solidified within the vent before being pushed out.
A solidified lava pond that consists of a massive gray basalt with weakly developed columnar jointing occupies the crater of Vulcan. Radial, sinuous lava tubes 8 to 20 inches (200 to 510 mm) across and 300 feet (91 m) long are preserved on the northeast and northwest flanks of Vulcan. [2] [3]