just awesome! Lava turns from La Palma volcano into underwater glass – El Financiero
The encounter of lava from the La Palma volcano with the sea not only generates large plumes of smoke, but the interaction of both masses with a large temperature difference changes nature.
One of the first things to notice is the vitrification of the outer portion of the lava, which occurs when magma (at more than 800 degrees) meets the sea (at about 24 degrees) and splinters violently and suddenly. But contrary to what was believed, it does not explode but rather explodes.
This process is so fast that liquid rock becomes solid without crystallizing, but it vitrifies.
The chemical composition of lava does not change when it is under water, what does change is its nature. When analyzing the lava at La Palma, it can be found that at least 50 percent is volcanic glass, a solid, but without an obsidian-like structure, although not as bright.
“There are deafening noises, like millions of broken glass,” he said. Country Professor of Petroleum at the University of Barcelona Domingo Jimeno.
“What happens is that upon arrival, the sea suddenly cools the laundry, and it is fragmented. It ceases to be symmetrical and widens the slits of the accumulated glass.
While Professor Jose Mangas, of the Institute of Oceanography and Global Change at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, told the newspaper that “it will take an underwater robot to monitor how the lava is progressing and it will adapt to the topography of the bottom.”
“Some minerals will form in a short time … days, months and years such as clays, zeolites and oxides … and in other thousands of years such as feldspar, low-temperature quartz, and epides (…),” he said.
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