Lava lake

A lava lake is a collection of molten lava flowing in a sink, usually a volcanic crater. Sometimes the term is also applied to a solidified lava lake. The lava is in a volcanic crater with a direct supply of lava from below, is referred to as the primary lava lake, the lake, however, was fed by tributaries above ground, it is called a secondary lava lake.

Most active lava lakes consist of basaltic melt, except the lake of Mount Erebus, which contains a phonolithische melt.

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Behavior

The ascending red-hot lava starts with reaching the surface immediately to cool, forming a thin black crust. Since this crust is heavier than the hotter molten lava, it will soon swallowed again, what has been compared to the subduction in plate tectonics. When the supply of fresh magma or hot gases is greater, the lake, or parts of it begins, violently to bubble, to the discharge of waste and bombs.

Many of the currently active lava lakes are already very active, while the height of the Lavaspiegels but vary greatly. Sometimes the sea can also be run as the most Kīlauea often is the case and runs rather harmless. On Nyiragongo in 1977 opened a crack in the crater and the lava ran out. The fast flowing lava called 600 lives.

Examples

The Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii has again and again produced lava lakes in different craters. The last big event with the drop and the refilling of lava lakes took place in March 2011 and concerned the Puu Oo crater and Halemaumau. The heights of the lava lakes in the currently highly volatile.

Active lava lakes

On Earth, there are currently (as of 1 April 2011) only a few active lava lakes:

• Mount Erebus, Antarctica (60 by 45 feet tall, active since at least 1972)
• Puu Oo Crater, Kīlauea, Hawaii
• Halemaumau - Crater, Kīlauea, Hawaii
• Erta Ale, Ethiopia (80 times 90 meters in diameter, active since 1906)
• Nyiragongo, Congo ( with about 1 km in diameter of the largest lava lake )
• Ambrym, Vanuatu
• Villarrica in Chile still active in late 2010.

Solidified lava lakes

Several solidified lava lakes can be found in the Fort Rock Basin, in the State of Oregon within Pleistocene Tuffringen. Even with Dimmuborgir of Lake Mývatn in North Iceland is the remains of a solidified lava lake.

More recent examples can be found at Kilauea, where among other things Kīlauea Iki Crater, 1959, the 116 m was filled by a lava flow and then slowly solidified. This is also an example of a secondary lava lake. Among other things, this lava lake was observed and analyzed during the solidification process by drilling, the temperature profile and the magmatic differentiation. So it took at only 20 m deep Alae lava lake almost 400 days until it solidifies completely, the temperature was below 1000 ° C, the solidus of basalt, dropped.

Aliens lava lakes

On Jupiter 's moon Io active lava lakes are suspected in several volcanic craters. Examples are Loki Patera Patera and tupan.