Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Ooh! Ooh! I Want to Try This At Home!

Callan Bentley just posted this YouTube video at his site. I have never gotten up close and personal with real live lava, and this looks like a feasible way to make it happen. In addition to his comment that the basalt is runny, while the granite/rhyolite is too viscous to drip, I think it should be pointed out that the melting temperature of basalt is much higher than that of rhyolite. So the different viscosities are not the result of the different melting temperatures: basalt melts at a higher (not lower) temperature. Also, technically the materials being made in the vidclip are lavas, not magmas, but in this case, that's pretty much irrelevant in light of the awesomeness of it being done at all. A previous post on this topic here.

2 comments:

GeologyJoe said...

I've got an O/A torch. Ill have to try this at home. I think Ill have the drips fall into water to make marbles.

Dean Wormer said...

God, that looks like fun.