What is Lava on Earth made of?

0 votes
asked 3 days ago in Science by Phenypotass (920 points)
What is lava on Earth made of?

1 Answer

0 votes
answered 3 days ago by 15thgear (34,010 points)
Lava on Earth is made of silicate melt, which is a mixture of molten silicate minerals as well as solid particles and also gas bubbles.

The silicate melt is made up of elements such as oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, titanium and potassium.

Silicate melt is the main component of lava as lava is a mixture of molten silicate minerals.

The molten silicate minerals are formed from a combination of elements, which is primarily oxygen and silicon, along with smaller amounts of other elements.

lava can also contain solid particles, which are essentially crystallized minerals, which were floating within the molten rock before the lava erupted.

Another part of lava is volcanic gases.

The volcanic gases like water vapor, carbon dioxide and even sulfur dioxide can get trapped in the lava as the lava cools and solidifies and forms bubbles.

The exact composition of lava can also vary depending on the origin of the lava and the specific geological conditions.

Although lava generally remains a molten rock mixture with a high percentage of silica.

Silicate Lava's are basically molten mixtures that are dominated by silicon and oxygen which are the most abundant elements of the Earth's crust, with smaller quantities of aluminum, calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron and potassium and a small amount of other elements.

Magma consists of liquid rock that usually contains suspended solid crystals.

As magma approaches the surface and the overburden pressure drops, dissolved gases bubble out of the liquid, so that magma near the surface consists of materials in solid, liquid, and gas phases.

109,193 questions

119,790 answers

1,362 comments

7,058,598 users

...