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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 ...
The lavas of different volcanoes, when cooled and hardened, differ much in their appearance and composition. If a rhyolite lava-stream cools quickly, it can quickly freeze into a black glassy substance called obsidian. When filled with bubbles of gas, the same lava may form the spongy appearing pumice. Allowed to cool slowly, it forms a light ...
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. [1] Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and periodic intervals of explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions, although some have collapsed summit ...
A’a lava has a rough, spiny surface made of clasts of lava called clinkers. [18] Block lava is another type of lava, with less jagged fragments than in a’a lava. [19] Pahoehoe lava is by far the most common lava type, both on Earth and probably the other terrestrial planets. It has a smooth surface, with mounds, hollows and folds. [3]
The tendency of felsic lava to be cooler than mafic lava increases the viscosity difference. The silicon ion is small and highly charged, and so it has a strong tendency to coordinate with four oxygen ions, which form a tetrahedral arrangement around the much smaller silicon ion. This is called a silica tetrahedron. In a magma that is low in ...
Basalt is the most common extrusive igneous rock [9] and forms lava flows, lava sheets and lava plateaus. Some kinds of basalt solidify to form long polygonal columns. The Giant's Causeway in Antrim, Northern Ireland is an example. The molten rock, which typically contains suspended crystals and dissolved gases, is called magma. [10]
This is the Manjanggul lava pillar located in the Manjanggul lava tubes, on the island of Jeju-do, Korea. A lava tube, or pyroduct, [1] is a natural conduit formed by flowing lava from a volcanic vent that moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow. If lava in the tube empties, it will leave a cave.
Ögmundarhraun lava fields in Iceland caused by eruption in 1151 AD. A lava field, sometimes called a lava bed, is a large, mostly flat area of lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly fluid basalt lava, and can extend for tens or hundreds of kilometers across the underlying terrain.