• Question: how close have you got to lava

    Asked by anon-198629 to Natasha on 4 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Natasha Dowey

      Natasha Dowey answered on 4 Mar 2019: last edited 4 Mar 2019 9:47 am

      I’ve stood right on top of it and crawled about on it looking at it with a hand lens (like a little geology microscope)- But only after it has cooled down!!

      The youngest rocks I’ve ever stood on were on Santorini in Greece- they were lavas that erupted only 50 years ago (so just a blink of an eye in geological time).

      I studied the rocks formed by explosive eruptions that create hot clouds of ash, gas, and rock- so my type of volcano science never brought me right up to an active lava flow. I’d like to go to Hawaii and see one for myself though!

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