Taxonomy term

lava

Plumbing Masaya's lava lake

In recent years, volcanic activity at Nicaragua’s Masaya Volcano has been relatively benign, with small eruptive episodes occasionally producing a lava lake in a summit crater that has become one of the country’s top tourist attractions.

24 Jul 2018

Lava shaped Lake Tahoe

With its preternaturally clear blue waters, Lake Tahoe is tranquil today, but the deep lake straddling the border of California and Nevada was once the site of repeated lava flows. In a new study, researchers used radiometric argon dating to describe how episodes of volcanism created the landscape around the largest alpine lake in North America.

21 May 2018

Young Costa Rican lavas might reflect pockets of primordial mantle

During the Archean, between 4 billion and 2.5 billion years ago, Earth’s super-heated young mantle produced a unique type of lava known as komatiite. In a new study published in Nature Geoscience, researchers looking at 90-million-year-old komatiites in Costa Rica — by far the youngest komatiites ever found — suggest the modern mantle may still harbor pockets of intense heat reminiscent of early Earth.

18 Aug 2017

Martian channels carved by lava, not water?

A complex system of river-like channels on Mars widely thought to have been formed by flowing water could instead have been carved by a huge lava flow, according to a new study. The findings could affect our understanding of how supportive Mars might have been for life in the past.

29 Jun 2017

Augustine Volcano's earthquakes and explosive eruption caused by a clogged conduit

New research shows that the explosive eruption in 2006 of Alaska’s Augustine Volcano, and the series of earthquakes that preceded it, were caused by a clogged conduit. The findings may help geologists monitor future eruptions at Augustine and elsewhere. 

29 Jul 2014

The Syracuse University lava experiments

Pouring Lava

Melting a batch of the ancient basalt takes about four hours, but we hold the lava above its melting point for much longer to ensure that it is completely melted and to remove unwanted volatiles such as water. The lava is then poured at temperatures of 1,100 to 1,350 degrees Celsius, comparable to eruption temperatures of natural lava. We monitor it with a spot calorimeter and a Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera, the same instrument conventionally used at lava flows in the field.

20 Aug 2012