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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 ...
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.
Formation occurs when the outer edges and surfaces of the lava flow begin to harden. [1] If the advancing lava underneath becomes restricted it may push up on the hardened crust, tilting it outward. [1] [2] Inflation also takes place and is a process where the plastic layer of lava underneath expands as it cools and small crystals form. [1] The ...
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 ...
Shallow intrusions, which possess structure similar to volcanic rather than plutonic rocks, are also considered to be volcanic, shading into subvolcanic. [citation needed] The terms lava stone and lava rock are more used by marketers than geologists, who would likely say "volcanic rock" (because lava is a molten liquid and rock is solid).
A lava tube is a type of lava cave formed when a low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust, which thickens and forms a roof above the still-flowing lava stream. Tubes form in one of two ways: either by the crusting over of lava channels , or from pāhoehoe flows where the lava is moving under the surface.
The Kilauea Volcano releases lava that flows down the slope of the volcano and eventually encounters the ocean; this lava flow hardens when it comes into contact with the significantly cooler water of the ocean and forms an unstable lava bench. Eventually, when the material beneath the lava bench stabilizes, it becomes stable land that has been ...
When rocks are pushed deep under the Earth's surface, they may melt into magma. If the conditions no longer exist for the magma to stay in its liquid state, it cools and solidifies into an igneous rock. A rock that cools within the Earth is called intrusive or plutonic and cools very slowly, producing a coarse-grained texture such as the rock ...