The coldest erupting lava in the world is the natrocarbonatite lava of the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, Tanzania that erupts at temperatures of 500-600°C (930-1,110 °F).
Most volcanologists would agree that the answer to that question is Ol Doinyo Lengai, a volcano in northern Tanzania.
Its lava erupts at temperatures never exceeding 510°C (950°F), far below the minimum for basalt (1,000°C/1,832°F), one of the most common lava types on the planet. It's so cold in fact that it's almost always black, as there's not enough heat radiating away from it to make it look red.
The colour of lavas can be associated with the temperature reached at the surface: dark red at low temperatures (475°C), orange at 900°C and white at extremely high temperature (>1150°C) (Kilburn, 2000).
The Ol Doinyo Lengai, meaning “Mountain of God” and located in Tanzania, claim to fame, is being the only natrocarbonatite volcano in the world. The lava that erupts from Ol Doinyo Lengai is at a cool temperature of 1,000°F!
Lava won't kill you if it briefly touches you. You would get a nasty burn, but unless you fell in and couldn't get out, you wouldn't die. With prolonged contact, the amount of lava "coverage" and the length of time it was in contact with your skin would be important factors in how severe your injuries would be!
Blue lava, also known as Api Biru, and simply referred to as blue fire or sulfur fire, is a phenomenon that occurs when sulfur burns. It is an electric-blue flame that has the illusory appearance of lava.
The color of lava depends on its temperature. It starts out bright orange (1000-1150 C). As it cools the color changes to bright red (800-1000 C), then do dark red (650-800 C), and to brownish red (500-650 C). Solid lava is black (but can still be very hot).
To commemorate, the duty scientist adjusted the color of lava in the west branch of the Kohola flow to a brilliant green.
Lava isn't quite hot enough to melt a diamond, but could a diamond burn in lava instead? In short, diamonds can burn in lava as the burning temperature of a diamond is about 900 °C and lava can get as hot as 1200 °C. The burning process will also, however, require oxygen.
In 1973, authorities tried to stop the flow of lava from Iceland's Eldfell Volcano on the island of Heimaey by spraying it with 1.5 billion gallons of ice-cold seawater, hoping the cooling effects of the water would halt the lava. The heat proved too much, and they were unable to prevent the advancement of the lava.
The answer lies in how you define “wet”. If we're using it as an adjective (definition: covered or saturated with water or another liquid), then lava is a liquid state so it therefore it's wet. But nothing touched by lava is left damp or moist, which means that you can't really use wet as a verb to describe lava.
Within the volcano's ghostly active crater, you can find shadow-hued cones called hornitos. Sometimes 15 metres high, they squirt out grey, brown, beige and black lava in all directions from their multitude of tubes and holes.
Basaltic lava and the different types of lava flows
Basalt is very dark in color - often black or gray. There are three different types of basaltic lava flows that are common in Hawaii - pillow lava, pahoehoe and 'A'a.
However, another type of volcano exists in the universe—ice volcanoes. Dr. Rosaly Lopes, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, says cryovolcanoes, or ice volcanoes, are found on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.
As with any outdoor material that is exposed to the elements, lava rocks can become dirty or caked with pollen, mold, or moss. Luckily, cleaning lava rocks is a breeze.
One that is hard to ignore is the aroma of volcanic gases. Two gases that tend to define a visitor's nasal experience, and that geochemists use to define conditions within the volcano, are sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is the gas that smells like rotten eggs.
When lava comes into contact with bone, it can cause the bone to disintegrate. However, it is important to note that this process is not instantaneous. It can take several minutes or even hours for the lava to completely melt the bone.
CARBONATITES. Carbonatites are perhaps the most unusual of all lavas. They are defined, when crystalline, by having more than 50% carbonate (CO3-bearing) minerals, and typically they are composed of less than 10% SiO2.
Volcanic rocks are among the most common rock types on Earth's surface, particularly in the oceans. On land, they are very common at plate boundaries and in flood basalt provinces. It has been estimated that volcanic rocks cover about 8% of the Earth's current land surface.
First, lava is more than three times denser than water; because humans are made mostly of water, it's three times denser than us, too. The laws of physics therefore dictate that we will float on its surface, not sink.
Other examples of metals and ceramics that can withstand lava's temperature include; titanium, iridium, iron alloys, osmium, nickel alloys, aluminum oxide, mullite, and silicon nitride.
It's lightweight, easy to move around and use. Crushed lava rock works great as mulch, it's lightweight, so it's easy to work with, arrange, maintain and clean-up when compared to other gravel or stone mulches.