If there’s one factor you, and Gollum, ought to learn about volcanoes, it is that “lava=scorching”. That, and it is not an incredible thought to try to plug them up with concrete.
But some volcanos are hotter than others. At Ol Doinyo Lengai in northern Tanzania as an illustration, the lava flows at temperatures so low it’s doable (although certainly not nice) to outlive.
The commonest kind of lava circulate is basaltic, making up round 90 p.c of all lava flows on the planet. In these flows, the lava erupts at temperatures of round 1,100 to 1,250°C (2,012 to 2,282°F). At Ol Doinyo Lengai, the lava erupts at a a lot cooler 510°C (950°F).
This distinction in temperature is because of its uncommon composition, being the one volcano on the earth to erupt carbonatite lava in recorded historical past.
“Carbonatite magma at Ol Doinyo Lengai has lower than 3 p.c silica and is extra akin to one thing you’d anticipate finding on a unique planet,” the US Geological Survey (USGS) explains on its web site. “What makes this lava so totally different from the stuff we’re used to? The chemical composition of carbonatite magma consists of little or no silica (silicon dioxide), essentially the most plentiful chemical constituent of the earth’s crust.”
“Carbonatites are a comparatively uncommon kind of igneous rock composed of higher than 50 vol p.c main carbonate minerals, primarily calcite and/or dolomite, and comprise the best concentrations of [rare Earth elements] of any igneous rocks,” the USGS provides.
Lava with much less silica in it has decrease viscosity, which means it’s much less thick and oozy than you have come to anticipate of lava. As a end result, it flows a lot sooner than different lavas, and cools because it does so, trying like a horrible river of blackened water or mud.
Though cooler than different flows, the volcano will be harmful as a result of pace of the circulate, and the truth that 510°C (950°F) continues to be what’s often known as “actually scorching”.
In 2007, one group exploring the mountain deserted their expedition when a neighborhood Maasai porter fell into an energetic lava circulate within the crater. He was in a position to escape from the lava pool, although he sustained critical burns to each his legs and one arm, and was taken to a neighborhood hospital earlier than being moved residence to get well from his long-term accidents.
