Oh , volcano , you pleasurably deadly things . There are so many ways that these wad of fire can obliterate you – pyroclastic flowing , superfast mud flows , ash fallout , lava bomb , you name it . They ’re creative , indiscriminate and not to be mess with .
speak of which , have you ever enquire what it ’s like totake a tumbleinto some lava ? Thanks to a mixture of scientific experimentation and a few unfortunate individuals themselves , we know the answer .
As long as the lava flow is appropriately thick , you perish as you pass into the molten rock and the heat overwhelms your organs . If they have n’t shut down due to stress , then the lava will pullulate in and physically use up away at them . Fascinatingly , there is a pile more nuance to it than that , but those are the basics .
first off , it ’s worth aim out that there are various variety show of lava . Some are hotter , others are cool , and some are stickier . The lava ’s prop will determine how fast or retard your untimely death will be .
more often than not speaking , most lava is around 1,000 ° C ( 1,832 ° F ) , and it ’s incredibly sticky , or “ viscous ” . It ’s more like a very gloopy fossil oil than water , so when you fall into it , it ’ll stick to you like glue . As the average lava is 3 - 4 times as dull as you , you’llsink slowlytoo ; in fact , you might just blow atop its open depending on how much you struggle .
So , upon hopping in for your pernicious bath , you ’ll get lodge at the aerofoil as the lava begins to give youfull thicknessburns . This injury is the type that not only destroys the upper stratum of your hide ( epidermis ) , but quickly destroys your nerve endings and severs your blood vessels within your underlying corium . Your subcutaneous avoirdupois will also boil off , so in effect , you ’ll be seared like a kick steak .
Nyiragongo ’s lava lake with a cheekiness adorning its surface . Photovolcanica.com/Shutterstock
Your skin wo n’t have a chance to be turned into a dried form of leather – unless you manage to get back out , of course . Your pitiful skeleton wo n’t be able to withstand the extreme temperatures , and it ’ll mellow away too until there ’s literally nothing left .
Do n’t eat into , though . Thanks to the mixture of highly toxic , acidic , and hot gases inside a lava lake , you ’ll in all likelihood asphyxiate , slip away out and go bad before the lava properly gets to run your stomach away .
Some of thecoolest lava on Earthcan be feel at Ol Doinyo Lengai , a strange volcano in Tanzania that sits atop the East African Rift , the line along which the continent is tearing itself aside . At temperature never outstrip 510 ° C ( 950 ° F ) , there is a chance you will fall in and come through , just as a local Maasai tribesman did a few years back .
The problem is that this lava is so fluent – up to 10 times more fluid that weewee , fit in to some accounts – that it would literally chamfer you downslope if you were trying to go away from it .
It ’s nothing compare to thefastest lava in the worldthough , which can be incur at Nyiragongo , a stratovolcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo . During a 1977 draining of its lava lake , 1,200 ° C ( 2,192 ° farad ) streams of hell were moving out of the vent ’s fissure at60 kilometers(37 miles ) per hour . secure circumstances outpacing that one .
Actually , if prominent pyrotechnics are your thing , then lava lake are right up your street .
A bag of trash being thrown into Erte Ale ’s lava lake back in 2002 . It does not go quietly . Photovolcanicavia YouTube
There ’s often a cooled crust at the top , so if someone tumbles into one of these natural crème brûlée , they ’ll smash through it . This will upset the lake , causing it to explosively release a lot of gas and setting off a series of igneous outbursts all around the new visitor splashing around in the nub .
