An estimated 90 percent of lava flows are mafic, consisting of around 50 percent silica (SiO2). This kind of lava has the lowest viscosity and gas content; it's the classic bright-red flow you ...

The lava flows in Hawaii are mafic, lava hotter 950 degrees Celsius.It’s low-viscosity, smoothly flowing in a runny mess. Because gas can escape readily, the eruptions are gentle and about as ...

This mafic lava allows gas to escape easily, resulting in burbling, gentle eruptions with small lava fountains and creeping lava flows building into gently-curved shield volcanoes.

Lava flows—which can be as hot as 2000 degrees Fahrenheit—are not always homogeneous like a well-mixed cake batter. The rough chunks of solidified lava that float on top of a molten flow are ...

Previously, it was thought that the youngest eruption in the region was the rhyolite lava of the Pitchstone Plateau about 70,000 years ago, while the youngest known basalt flow was 120,000 years old. ...

To give you an idea of how often lava flows from Kilauea, 90 percent of the surface of the volcano has lava 1,000 years old or younger. Regular eruptions mean the island is almost perpetually in a ...

Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass that forms when viscous rhyolite magma, which is rich in silica, erupts as a lava flow then cools rapidly. The rapid cooling and high viscosity of ...

Mafic lavas (basalt) are commonly found as plains and low relief shield volcanoes, such as the Hawaiian islands. ... having the morphology of lava domes and ash flows on Earth.