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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 ...
Obsidian (/ əbˈsɪdi.ən, ɒb -/ əb-SID-ee-ən ob-) [5] is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. [6] Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminum, sodium, and potassium.
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.
454 million-year-old volcanic ash between layers of limestone in the catacombs of Peter the Great's Naval Fortress in Estonia near Laagri. This is a remnant of one of the oldest large eruptions preserved. The diameter of the black camera lens cover is 58 mm (2.3 in). Volcanic ash is formed during explosive volcanic eruptions and phreatomagmatic ...
Still, the lava flow hit water pipes in the region just south of the capital, disrupting the supply of geothermally-heated water used to warm homes and leading the Civil Protection Agency to raise ...
The dashed trajectories are the result of lava pieces with a bright hot side and a cool dark side rotating in mid-air. Volcanology (also spelled vulcanology) is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geological, geophysical and geochemical phenomena (volcanism). The term volcanology is derived from the Latin word vulcan.
Volcanic hazard. A schematic diagram shows some of the many ways volcanoes can cause problems for those nearby. A volcanic hazard is the probability a volcanic eruption or related geophysical event will occur in a given geographic area and within a specified window of time. The risk that can be associated with a volcanic hazard depends on the ...