What Would Happen If You Drink Lava?

Volcanoes are some of the most powerful and mesmerizing examples of mother nature’s fury. From far away they’re beautiful and the lava seems to flow almost gracefully. But from close up, they’re violent, hot, and wreak havoc on anything near them. That molten red lava oozes out of the earth and slowly makes its way down the mountain might look pretty appetizing if you were on a long trek and dying of starvation. In fact, it might even look like a red slushy! Funnily enough, scientists actually do describe it’s mineral contents as a “slush”. Oh so tempting, but is it delicious!? Probably not, but what would happen to your body if you ingested it? Can you drink lava like a beverage? How bad would it hurt if you did? First off, is lava even a liquid? Is it wet? Well that’s up for debate. The temperature of lava is far higher than the boiling point of water, so any liquid water would be gone, but lava does contain plenty of hydrogen and oxygen, the molecular components of water. Lava is also very viscous, which means it flows but extremely slowly. In fact it is 100,000 times more viscous than water so while lava is definitely in a liquefied state, whether it is wet or not is still up for debate. Liquid but also boiling hot? Let’s talk temperature. Lava’s temperature ranges from 1200 degrees fahrenheit to 2200 degrees fahrenheit. That’s hot. Very, very hot! Really it’s so hot that almost anything close to it would burst into flames. When scientists have had to collect lava samples, they have to wear full body protective suits. Despite all that protection, they still often get burns when retrieving it. Let’s say you somehow manage to retrieve some lava in a protective vessel for drinking and you get that vessel to your lips and pour the lava into your mouth. What would happen? First off the lava is so hot it would likely burn everything in your mouth and completely incinerate it. If you did manage to swallow it, it would burn everything inside your body, leaving you in agonizing pain as it slowly destroyed your esophagus. If you were able to ingest the lava and somehow your body was able to cool the molten rock to a safe temperature, it would solidify inside your body and most likely suffocate you, starve your body of oxygen, and in turn cause many of your organs to fail. If by chance the lava did make it into your stomach, you would immediately perish. The lava would melt through your stomach and destroy all your internal organs. Doesn't sound too pleasant does it? That’s because the human body isn't meant to consume anything that hot! Think about it… It hurts to even drink tea that’s too hot! Imagine that one time you ate a steaming bowl of soup or a hot cup of coffee and burned your tongue. Even that was extremely painful and may have even left your mouth and throat burned a bit. Now it’s likely that the temperature of that was between 160 and 190 degrees fahrenheit. Multiply that sensation by roughly 12 to 15 times and that will give you a rough estimate of what it would be like to eat lava. If you still want to eat lava after hearing all this, venture over to the Bræðraborg Café in Iceland where they serve up edible lava! Only this lava isn't made of molten rock, it’s made of liquorice, carmel, and egg whites and served at a reasonable and safe temperature. Eating lava is something that no one should ever do. You’d probably burst into flames before the spoonful of the molten rock even hit your lips, but the entire experience would result in one terribly painful situation and more than likely death. We’ll take the lava made out of caramel served in a chocolate cake every time!

Channel: Fuzzy & Nutz

Views: 508,385

Rating: 4.910944 out of 5

Keywords: what if, fuzzy and nutz, fuzzy and nuts, funny, fuzzy, animation, educational, science, education, nutz, fuzzy bear, fuzzy & nutz, animated, what will happen, lava lake, stepping on lava, volcanic eruptions, volcano eruption, volcano, what happens, body, your body, lava, magma, drink, drinks, drink lava, ate lava, drink magma, eat magma, eat lava, fire damage, lava body

Id: jMgGEoYqPlc

Length: 3min 28sec (208 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020