How long does it take lava to cool?
Matt
Hi Matt,
That depends on how thick the lava flow is and how cool you want it to be.
A thin pahoehoe flow is cool enough to support a person's weight in only
10 minutes or so, but it is still hot (and still molten inside). For it
to completely cool, a flow that is about a meter thick will probably
require more than 2 days. This is because lava is such a good insulator.
An extreme example is a lava flow that was erupted in 1959 and flowed into
aa pit crater. Because this lava flowed into a depression it got very
deep. In fact, it was about 85 meters thick. It was drilled in 1988, and
there is still some mushy, not-quite-solid stuff down near the bottom.
I think I answered some similar questions a few months ago, so you may
want to check the previously-asked-questions section to make sure I didn't
forget anything this time.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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