What is Lava

The lava came from the latin word which means to fall or slide. Lava comes out when the surface of earth crust opens or cracked. When the tectonic plates of earth converge and diverge the crust opens and thus produces the low viscous liquid called volcano. The Lava is a melted rock also known as magma which is allowed to get out from earth surface during a volcanic eruption when the temperature reaches from 704 to 1093 Celsius. When this hot magma cools down it becomes igneous rock, however it took many years to cool down the lava and it is not necessary that if the lava is cooled down at the top then the bottom may be hot.The chances from the occurrence of volcano is from the HotSpots.

Magma has gas bubbles that expands by the pressure of top layer rocks and when this pressure increases these bubbles rises upwards carrying magma with it. When the volcanoes erupt it throw the lava of height of 2000 feet. The fastest flow of lava is measured 37 miles per hour. Basically Lava is red in color but it can be of orange , bright orange ,bright red, dark red and brownish red. These colors sometimes also help in predicting the temperature range. When the lava is orange in color the temperature of 1832 degrees ,dark red means temperature of 1472 and 1832 degrees and brownish red means temperature of 932 to 1202 degrees fahreneit and brownish red at temperature 932 to 1202 degrees Fahrenheit and when the lava is solid it becomes black.

There are two types of lava texture: “A” and “PAHOEHOE” in Hawaiian words.

“A” is characterized by rough surface and the eruption rate is high and slope is steep.

“Pahoehoe” is characterized by smooth or wrinkle surface formed from fluid lava .

Most of the rocks formed from the lava consist of following elements: Oxygen, silicon, aluminium , iron, calcium , sodium , potassium, magnesium. There are different types of lava are basalt, andesite, dacite and rhyolite where basalt is the lowest silica content and rhyolite is the highest silica content.The amount of silica decides the rate of flow of lava foreg: Basaltic lava is spreaded widely and rhyolite is stiffer and flows at a slower speed.

The lava form the various kinds of landforms like volcanoes , cinder and spatter cones, lava domes, lava tubes, lava lakes, lava delta, lava fountains.

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