EVERYTHING You Need to Know About Volcanoes and Lava

Dormant, active, or in-between, volcanoes are found all over the world, and they’re even more terrifying than you may think. But they’re also far more interesting and exciting than you’d probably imagine, and we’re here to tell you why. From lava channels on Mars to the realities of black lava, we’ve got it all here. This is All You Need to Know About Volcanoes and Lava!

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5. You Can Outrun Lava
We typically see volcanoes spewing lava from their tops at incredible rates and in destructive style. But, what needs to be understood is that usually, there aren’t many people near the top of the volcano when it’s erupting, so that lava isn’t causing many fatalities. Between the years 1500 and 2017, more than 214,000 people lost their lives due to volcanic activity, but of those, only 659 were attributed to lava. The typical mafic lava flow moves just one mph unless they’re on a steep slope or part of a lava tube.


4. Real Dangers of Volcanoes
One thing you do need to watch out for, though if you’re near an eruption: explosions. If you’re anywhere around the volcano, watch out for sudden outbursts of fluid lava, as those can be highly dangerous. Another cause of loss of life is the cutting off of escape routes or supplies, and those are self-explanatory. Sometimes, lava will react with vegetation, water, and fuel, causing even more explosions you don’t want to be around. Lahars, which is a dangerous mudflow on the side of a volcano, cause much destruction and as many as 50,000 deaths are attributed to them. Perhaps the most dangerous things about volcanoes are pyroclastic density currents, or hot gas, ash, and rocks moving at high speeds, and volcano-related tsunamis. No volcanoes for us, please.




3. Black Lava is a Thing
What causes this strange, dark lava is its temperature, which is a far lower than most other lavas out there. While most lava lives its short life at between 1300 degrees Fahrenheit and 2300 degrees Fahrenheit (700-1250 degrees Celsius), depending on its composition. Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania, Africa has lava that burns at just 1000 degrees Fahrenheit (537.7 degrees Celsius), and the volcano itself is the only known active carbonatite volcano in the world. Carbonatite is an igneous rock which is made from mainly carbonate minerals and makes the lava flow black instead of red, and when it cools and dries, it becomes white. Ol Doinyo Lengai is responsible for the production of a lot of the world’s rare-earth minerals.



2. Two Huge Volcanoes are Next Door Neighbors
Mauna Kea: a prized feature in the Hawaiian Islands and the tallest volcano, on land, in the world. This massive shield volcano stands 13,802 feet (4,207 meters), but it’s not the largest volcano in the world. The largest is Mauna Kea’s neighbor, Mauna Loa, which stands 13,677 feet (4,169 meters) tall. Now, you may say that Mauna Loa is smaller than Mauna Kea, and if we were just talking about height, that would be the case. But when you look at the overall mass, Mauna Loa takes the cake. It measures around 2,000 square miles (5,200 square kilometers). Those aren’t the largest volcanoes in the world, though. On land, yes, but there’s an underwater volcano called Tamu Massif that’s far larger than either of these volcanoes. It’s said to cover an area of around 120,000 square miles, which makes Mauna Loa about 2% of Tamu Massif’s size. It stands 14,633 feet (4,460 meters) tall.


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