Her­e‘s somet­hing we‘ve lear­ned through the years as major volcano and lava nerds and to found­ers of Icelandic Lava Show in Vík, where we liter­ally play with mol­ten lava on a daily bas­is.

Not so inn­ocent after all

Lava is a great insulator and rapidly soli­difies on the surface when it gets in contact with the atmosphere. However, it is often just the very outermost layer that soli­difies while the lava can remain mol­ten right below that seem­ingly inn­ocent black surface for a long time.

In mol­ten form, when lava is glowing in var­ying colors of white, yellow and orange, it can be up to 1250 degrees Celsius (2200 degrees Fahren­heit). The brighter the lava, the hott­er. In the same way, the “blacker” the lava, the cold­er.

Lava Tunn­els and Lava Pudd­les

Due to the rapidly insulat­ing nat­ure of lava and how fast its outermost layer soli­difies, the lava often cont­inues to flow below the surface of the blac­kened lava. In fact, that’s exactly how lava tunn­els are for­med. When an eruption cont­inu­es, the magma that pours out of the Earths crust main­ta­ins a cont­inu­ous flow of lava which then puts more and more pressure on the sem­i-soli­dified lava in front or on top. Eventu­ally, the pressure breaks somewhere, sometimes sudd­enly and with little warn­ing, with lava pouring out.

This can be a slow, beauti­ful process but it can also happen quickly with super thin-­flowing lava gushing out to rapid­ly. This is why it can be dan­ger­ous to stand too close to seem­ingly soli­dified lava because a sudden lava out­burst can simply flow faster than your feet can carry you away.

Respect Mother Nat­ure

So when faced with new lava, ple­ase be careful. Looks can be deceiv­ing and you could liter­ally loose more than your foot­ing if you’re not careful. We are not­hing but insigni­ficant creat­ures aga­inst the power of Earth which is why we should all show mother nat­ure the respect she des­er­ves.

The aut­hors are found­ers and owners of Icelandic Lava Show in Vík, Iceland.