However, the death of Gollum at the end of Return of the King got me thinking. Gollum, if you remember, dove into the lava of Mount Doom after his precious ring was thrown in — he proceeds to sink into the lava (see below) and leaves the ring floating on the lava until it melts away. Guess what? Sinking into lava just will not happen if you’re a human (or remotely human). You’d need to be a Terminator to sink into molten rock/metal … and here’s why.

Molten lava is nothing like water. Sure, everyone thinks that liquid rock (magma) is going to behave like any other liquid (e.g., water), but there are some key physical properties that tell us it just isn’t the case.

Then there’s the math and an experiment that explains why one doesn’t sink in lava. Still, you don’t want to try it at home. Link -via Not Exactly Rocket Science

Seven churches devoured by lava? Maybe someone is trying to tell them something! No, actually many more homes and businesses are devoured by lava, but churches are built to last forever, so often we still have the ruins after a volcanic eruption, whereas other buildings are totally destroyed. Shown is the church in San Juan Parangaricutiro, Mexico, that was half-buried by a volcanic eruption in 1943. See lots more at Environmental Graffiti. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user · YeahjaleaH ·)

It looks like French photographer Olivier Grunewald has gone to Orodruin, the fabled volcano of Mordor – but the otherworldly lake of molten lava is actually very much on Earth. Boston’s The Big Picture has 28 fascinating photos of Grunewald’s journey to Hell on Earth, AKA the Nyiragongo Crater in Africa:

In June 2010, a team of scientists and intrepid explorers stepped onto the shore of the lava lake boiling in the depths of Nyiragongo Crater, in the heart of the Great Lakes region of Africa. The team had dreamed of this: walking on the shores of the world’s largest lava lake. Members of the team had been dazzled since childhood by the images of the 1960 documentary "The Devil’s Blast" by Haroun Tazieff, who was the first to reveal to the public the glowing red breakers crashing at the bottom of Nyiragongo crater. Photographer Olivier Grunewald was within a meter of the lake itself, giving us a unique glimpse of it’s molten matter.

Link | Olivier Grunewald at Gitzo | Wild Wonders of Europe – via Ectoplasmosis

A collision eons ago between the earth and another celestial body throw vaporized rock into the atmosphere, some of which eventually became the moon. If this is true, you’d think that the earth and the moon would share the same basic materials, but there is more iron on the moon and more magnesium on earth.

Now researchers have an answer, and it’s completely awesome. Magma rain would resolve the mystery, as rising rock vapor would see its magnesium oxide start to condense into droplets and fall back onto the planet’s surface. The iron oxide inside the rock vapor wouldn’t have condensed as easily, meaning far more of it got mixed into the disc that became the Moon.

Which evokes some interesting mental pictures resembling heavy metal album covers. Link -via Geekosystem

(Image credit: Fahad Sulehria)

The U.S. Geological Survey has an extensive database of lava-related events in Hawaii.  One hundred of the best images have been assembled on a web page and placed on a DVD.  These were…

…selected from the collections of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory as enduring favorites of the staff, researchers, media, designers, and the public over time. They represent photographs of a variety of geological phenomena and eruptive events, chosen for their content, quality of exposure, and aesthetic appeal. The number was kept to 100 to maintain the high resolution desirable.

In the photo above a pair of “concerned scientists” decide to run from a “…surging ‘a‘a flow in Royal Gardens. The top of an ‘a‘a flow rides on the underlying mass and rolls over it like a tractor’s tread, advancing to the front of the flow.”

Link, via.  Photo by J.D. Griggs, 7/2/83, JG2514 (click to enlarge).

“Slice an onion, separate into rings, and stack it to make a cone. Then
fill with oil and water, and get annoying restaurant patrons to lean in
really close with their cameraphones to see what percentage of their
eyebrows you can remove. Optionally, add soy sauce for lava.”

- via videosift