page_title: Lava
section_title: Lava fountains
hierarchical_section_title: Lava / Lava fountains
caption_attribution_description: Español: Chorro de lava del volcán Kilauea English: Lava fountain explodes from the Pu`u `O`o spatter and cinder cone on Kilauea Volcano. Dark, cooling lava fragments (tephra) fall to the ground on the cone and downwind. Below the cone, small lava fountains and flows erupt from a small fissure.
context_page_description: Lava is molten rock that has been expelled from the interior of some planets and some of their moons. Magma is generated by the internal heat of the planet or moon and it is erupted as lava at volcanoes or through fractures in the crust, usually at temperatures from 700 to 1,200 °C. The solid rock resulting from subsequent cooling is also often described as lava.
  A lava flow is a moving outpouring of lava created during a non-explosive effusive eruption. When it has stopped moving, lava solidifies to form igneous rock. The term lava flow is commonly shortened to lava. Although lava can be up to 100,000 times more viscous than water, lava can flow great distances before cooling and solidifying because of its thixotropic and shear thinning properties.
  Explosive eruptions produce a mixture of volcanic ash and other fragments called tephra, rather than lava flows. The word lava comes from Italian, and is probably derived from the Latin word labes which means a fall or slide. The first use in connection with extruded magma was apparently in a short account written by Francesco Serao on the eruption of Vesuvius in 1737.
context_section_description: A lava fountain is a volcanic phenomenon in which lava is forcefully but non-explosively ejected from a crater, vent, or fissure. The highest lava fountains recorded were during the 1999 eruption of Mount Etna in Italy, which reached heights of 2,000 m (6,562 ft). However, lava fountains observed during Mount Vesuvius' 1779 eruption are believed to have reached at least 3,000 m (9,843 ft). Lava fountains may occur as a series of short pulses, or a continuous jet of lava. They are commonly associated with Hawaiian eruptions.
caption: 450m-high lava fountain at Kilauea
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