Submitted by Robert Peckyno on Thu, 05/06/2010 - 11:56

 

 

Lava is hot for two primary reasons:

  1. Pressure and radiogenic heating make it very hot deep in the Earth (about 100 km down) where rocks melt to make magma.
  2. The rock around the magma is a good insulator so the magma doesn't lose much heat on the way to the surface.
Category: 
Lava