Top 15 Mesmerizing Lava Flows

while there are plenty of amazing natural events that take place in our world none are quite as incredible as lava flows they are mesmerizing dangerous and destructive forces of nature here are 15 mesmerizing lava flows number 15 the lava fall while waterfalls are usually made out of well water this clip shows a stream of lava flowing into the ocean below coming out of the kilauea volcano in hawaii it began to flow in july of 2016 but created a waterfall after destroying the land around it on december 31st of that year as you can see the flow rate of the lava is extremely fast yet despite the intensity of the lava both hikers and sightseeing boats have opted to venture just meters away from it and while they certainly risked their lives in order to do so the pictures they must have taken were certainly priceless number 14 an underwater volcano typically speaking when a volcano erupts lava comes up from its core and layers the surrounding areas with it yet in the case of underwater volcanoes the story is a little different that's because the presence of cold and abundant quantities of water causes lava to cool and solidify much quicker than it does on land and as a result underwater land masses can effectively be built by these eruptions as seen in the clip the lava does flow freely yet not long after it escapes it solidifies into hard rock and while most of these rocks never come above this surface at times entirely new islands are made when these underwater eruptions occur a famous example of this in action was the island of surtsey which appeared off the coast of iceland after an eruption on november 14th in 1963 so we do think it's fair to say that underwater eruptions are some of the coolest lava flows out there number 13. mount mayon while the philippines may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of volcanoes its proximity to the pacific ring of fire puts it in the perfect place to have quite a few of them yet of the 22 active volcanoes in the country mount mayon is the most active of the bunch standing at almost 2 500 meters tall it quite frequently spurts out lava yet on january 13th of 2018 an especially incredible event occurred that's because the volcano spewed forth a lava plume that reached a height of about 700 meters causing a massive lava flow to spill down the mountain this forced 56 000 people in the surrounding areas to flee for their lives and these flows didn't stop until the end of the month so we think it's fair to say that while we may find mount leon's lava flows to be impressive the locals were probably less than thrilled to see them number 12 mount erebus while antarctica may be one of the coldest places on earth it's also home to an extremely warm volcano located on ross island it is the southernmost volcano in the world and is known for its consistent eruptions these blasts are generally quite weak in nature allowing the volcano to produce a lava lake that has existed uninterrupted for years and while this makes it not all that deadly it's been the site of a famous plane crash occurring on november 28th of 1979 new zealand flight 901 crashed into mount erebus after a deceptive lightning phenomenon known as the flying in a cloud theory and the flat light phenomenon made it impossible for the pilot to see the volcano leading to the deaths of all 257 people on board it was easily one of the worst volcanic related accidents in aeronautic history number 11 piton de la fornes put simply reunion is remote so remote that in fact it's located in the middle of the indian ocean yet despite being a relatively unknown corner of the globe it's home to a large 2600 meter tall volcano known as piton de la fornes it's considered to be one of the most active volcanoes in the world and has had several eruptions in the last decade when erupting it also exhibits several types of lava flows with these ranging from being free-flowing and fast to slow and steady and regardless of which ones you like most watching clips from the lava flows that occurred there on february 18th to the 19th of 2019 certainly is quite cool [Music] number 10 the leilani estates lava flow while lava flows are often fast and deadly the ones that let off from the kilauea volcano were anything but for reference this volcano was located on the big island in hawaii and has historically been one of the most active of the island's five volcanoes in fact it's so active that it erupted multiple times between 1983 and 2018 yet this video was taken near the tail end of this activity on may 4th of 2018 in the clip we see a large lava flow slowly inch towards the leilani estate subdivision following both an eruption and a 6.9 magnitude earthquake while its speed was quite slow at less than two kilometers per hour it destroyed nearly everything in its path eating up trees and eventually taking out houses as it made its way through the area this meant that the area's two thousand or so residents were forced to flee and eventually came home to find their property destroyed worst of all the eruptions continued all the way until september effectively upheaving the lives of local residents for months on end however we bet that the locals are just happy that this lava flow wasn't traveling a tad bit faster number nine the lake of lava while most lakes on our planet are made out of water in 2014 a very special icelandic rendition was formed out of lava that's because after a fissure eruption began in central iceland on august 29th of 2014 massive amounts of lava began to flow up from the ground below the eruption lasted until february 27th of 2015 and once all was said and done it had expelled about 1.4 cubic kilometers of lava over an area of 85 square kilometers for reference this not only made it the largest lava field in iceland since 1783 but was large enough to be roughly equal to the size of manhattan unsurprisingly such a large lava lake captured a lot of attention and this is what compelled us videographer eric cheng to bring a drone to the site and while the drone had to deal with the extremely hot temperature of the lava and the extremely cold temperature of iceland itself it was able to capture some truly stunning clips of the area best of all the lava lake can still be visited today and is certainly somewhere to add to your bucket list if you ever decide to travel to iceland number eight the elephant foot few things are quite as catastrophic as the meltdown of a nuclear power plant and while radiation is the most concerning consequence of meltdowns it turns out that these events can also create a sort of nuclear lava now the science behind the creation of this lava is quite complicated but in essence the process begins when a plant's uranium container cannot be sufficiently cooled this allows the uranium and the reactor to melt its fuel rods creating a sort of nuclear waste known as corium lava in chernobyl this corium lava managed to make its way through two meters of piping and this is especially dangerous because the elephant foot that formed will likely be radioactive for centuries at its creation the foot was actually strong enough to kill a human within five minutes of standing close by and today it's far less radioactive than it was 35 years ago regardless this deadly lava flow could have easily been prevented had there been better safety protocols at the plant number seven erta el volcano while most volcanoes are located in mountainous areas erta el stands apart for being in the middle of a desert located in the afar region of northeastern ethiopia the fault that it sits on is known as the afar depression it is known for having a continuously flowing lava lake and is reportedly one of the eight volcanoes in the world that has one interestingly enough this is possible due to it having an effusive rather than an explosive eruption as its lava steadily flows out along the ground rather than in large bursts the result of this is a black lake of lava that is nothing if not captivating now while you may be tempted to visit this volcano we'd advise against it that's because it's not only surrounded by some of the most inhospitable land on earth but it's in an area known for being extremely violent in fact the situation there has gotten so bad that in 2012 five tourists were killed and two were taken hostage after an attack by the afar revolutionary democratic unity front and in 2017 a german tourist was shot and killed while traversing the lava flow if you do decide to go we'd suggest bringing a large military escort with you number six maram lava lake many of the lava flows on this list have existed for years the muram lava lake has disappeared quite recently for reference it was located on the small island country of vanuatu in the south pacific ocean and the lake itself was situated inside the large ambrim volcano for years no one had actually been all that close to the lake due to it being hard to get to yet in 2012 jeff mackley and bradley ambrose got within 30 meters of it after a 35-day hike with the help of breathing apparatus and heat-proof proximity suits the pair were able to take 40 minutes of film and in the process they captured some of the most beautiful lava flows in the world in 2017 google street view even managed to get a picture of the lake on record yet if you try to venture tomorrow lava lake today you'll be sorely disappointed that's because a massive 2018 eruption essentially drained the lake and now there's no more lava left in the reservoir number five odonyo lengai while the name of this volcano may sound strange to many it easily has some of the coolest lava flows on the planet translating to mountain of god in the local maasai language this lava stands apart for not only being black and runny but also being relatively cold this volcano is found in northern tanzania and is part of a fault line known as the gregory rift it expels a rare form of lava known as natural carbonate and at a temperature of 510 degrees celsius it's so cold that it's rarely hot enough to turn red and instead maintains a black color this relatively cool temperature has made for some pretty incredible stories with the most shocking being a 2007 event when a man fell into the lava and survived however it should be noted that while he became the first man in history to fall into lava and live to tell the tale he still had severe burns on his arms and legs and had to be taken to hospital now beyond the lack of heat the lava is also strange due to its viscosity that's because rather than be thick and rocky it seems to run like water this can largely be attributed to its lack of framework making molecular chains of silica as the lava is made up of mostly calcium and sodium rather than silica and oxygen yet as a consequence of this the lava is also fast enough to outpace a running human making it a good thing that this volcano doesn't erupt all too often however in tandem the lava's cool temperatures and unique molecular makeup ensure that its eruptions are often quite strange that's because rather than spurt into the air and fall to the ground aldo in yolengai's lava often freezes in mid air and shatters into pieces that drift away in the wind so we think it's fair to say that this volcano's lava flows truly are an oddity number four the plaski tobacco volcano while russia's far east region of kamchatka is just about as remote as it gets it certainly has its fair share of natural wonders that's because it's home to the plaski tulbachek volcano which at almost 3 700 meters tall is absolutely massive in size toback exists today thanks to its position on the pacific plate which is a subduction zone that slides under eurasia this subduction zone has caused a string of volcanoes to form with the volcanoes starting in japan and running north into kamchatka and while certain russian volcanoes such as chevrolet and besmiani are known for being very active between 2012 and 2013 it was toilet check that decided to blow it has been dormant for almost 40 years when it began to spurt lava in november of 2012 this eruption didn't end until september of 2013 and at its peak it was producing lava fountains that were as much as a few hundred meters high lava flows that were as much as 20 kilometers in length once all was said and done most experts believe that it produced some of the largest lava flows of the 21st century as it deposited a total of 0.4 cubic kilometers of lava around the volcano's surrounding areas however what makes this lava flow especially unique is that diamonds were found within it at first scientists were not sure where these diamonds came from and most speculated that they were either xenoliths brought up from the ground or byproducts of the synthetic diamonds found on human drills yet the truth of the matter was that these diamonds came from the crystallization of gas within the lava as these diamonds showed impurities such as nitrogen fluorine chlorine and silicon and while it may be too late to get your share of these glittering treasures they were still quite cool number three homemade lava while most of the lava flows on this list can be attributed to massive volcanoes this lava flow was entirely man-made known as the syracuse university lava project the initiative began when sculpting professor bob wassotsky approached geology professor jeff carson with the idea of creating natural scale lava flows from real volcanic rock after drafting up plans to acquire affordable basalt the two set to work creating a massive outdoor oven where they could create the lava they first began experimenting by creating 25 to 40 kilogram melts inside an indoor furnace but soon expanded the operation by purchasing an old 2 000 furnace making some improvements so it could melt rock it took them about three years to get everything just right and after finding out how to render water out of the basalt they were ready to get going now what makes their contraption truly unique is that it allows different types of lava flows to be created as put by professor carson quote most lava flows we never see them flowing so you never really know how they got in those shapes all we're left with is the final form of the lava so we're learning a lot about how to decode or how to understand what these shapes mean and quote this machine has allowed them to change different variables so that they can examine different flow shapes and the end result of these efforts have been a total of five scientific papers and more than 20 expositions that directly use this lava machine they also regularly have students of all ages watch the lava flows which is especially cool since this is a phenomenon that would otherwise require a trip to a volcano thousands of kilometers away to top this off professor wasochiki is even planning on using the machine to create lava flows in unique areas and he has hopes to recreate them in places like hotel lobbies deserts and even central park while on our end we just hope that the two will soon be able to show off their new machine far and wide number two mount etna while there are plenty of volcanoes around the world one of the most recent to have erupted is mount etna located on the southern italian island of sicily it lies above the convergent plate between the african plate and the eurasian plate widely considered to be the most active volcano in europe outside of the caucasus its geographical location has made it a thing of lore for millennia it actually played a large role in the myths of the ancient greeks as mount edna was supposedly the spot where both the deadly monster typhon was trapped by zeus and where hephaestus kept his forge beyond the myths the volcano's frequent eruptions have also helped the surrounding people as the soil around the mount aetna region is considered to be very fertile and supports an endless array of vineyards and orchards yet due to its proximity to many cities it could easily cause widespread devastation if it were to have a major eruption event thankfully this hasn't happened in recent history yet since february 3rd of 2021 the volcano has been erupting non-stop and while it doesn't seem to pose too big of a threat the 3700 meter high plume of ash and smoke sparked several earthquakes and opened up five volcanic vents the ash that came out of it also forced local airports to ground all flights and in the cities this ash has also covered many cars and buildings necessitating a massive cleaning effort if considering that most of the challenges brought about by the eruption are temporary we'd assume that most sicilians are just happy that the eruption isn't any worse [Music] number one krakatoa of all the volcanoes on planet earth none are quite as infamous as krakatoa located in the sunda strait between the indonesian islands of java and sumatra it's responsible for the largest volcanic eruption in recorded human history occurring in august of 1883 the eruption was so large that it not only completely decimated the island where it resided but let out a force equivalent to 200 megatons of tnt for reference this is 200 times the strength of the hiroshima nuclear bomb and was strong enough to be heard 3 100 kilometers away in perth australia it also created shock waves that circled the planet at least seven times led to a massive tsunami that completely destroyed 165 coastal villages to make matters worse the explosions hurled about 45 cubic kilometers of debris into the atmosphere and this not only blocked out the sun in the local area for three days but also led to a 1.2 degree celsius drop in the world's average temperature over the next five years in tandem this eruption managed to directly kill over 36 000 people with further thousands dying indirectly years later thanks to the eruptions after effects unfortunately since videos didn't exist in 1883 we can't show you a clip of this eruption's incredible lava flow however in october of 2018 a much more small-scale eruption occurred causing massive plumes of lava to flow down the volcano the resulting tsunamis killed an estimated 160 people in coastal areas thus krakatoa's past and present eruptions easily make it one of the most deadliest volcanoes in human history watch our nature playlist for more top 15 videos about beautiful nature sit back relax and binge watch all of our best nature videos

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 1,711,048

Keywords: Mesmerizing Lava Flows, lava flows

Id: o8fMvArKGUI

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021