This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Everyone loves lava lots! So, as per Bruce's request, I brought you some more. To the right is a glowing a`a lava flow advancing over pahoehoe lava on the coastal plain of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Below is a video of a fabulous a'a lava flow from Kilauea. Listen closely - you can hear a sound like a hundred champagne glasses breaking. Those are the clinkers, cooled bits of lava tumbling from atop the flow.
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There's an excellent write-up of basalt lava flows here that will explain the whole clinker-thing. Read that, then come back for some more fun with clinkery a'a flows.
Of course, no post full of Hawaiian lava flows would be complete without surfer music, so here you are: a'a tumbling into the sea at night while surfer-type music plays merrily.
Is there a better way to spend a Sunday? Probably not. Well, maybe a few. But this is still fairly awesome. Now that you've seen some lava flow, check out Erik Klemetti's post on identifying lava flow features. One o' these days, I'm going to do a whole series on that kind o' thing. It's lined up with the twelve million other topics I want to explore. So much earth science! So little time!
Originally published at En Tequila Es Verdad.