Lava Lava was molten rock that is exuded from the ground , such as during a volcanic eruption . The miniature settlement on Terra 10 was threatened by lava due to increased volcanic activity , necessitating its relocation to the planet Verdanis once they got the attention of the passing . ( ) When a team of specialist s were on the mad planet attempting to locate the Soul of Alar , their Vedala ground vehicle was buried in lava from a volcano . ( ) Commander Kruge was kicked into a sea of lava while fighting with Admiral Kirk on the . ( ) In a story told by Kor , he , Kang , and Koloth battled T ' nag between " walls of fire " and " river s of lava " . ( ) In the " Julian Bashir , Secret Agent " holoprogram , Hippocrates Noah attempted to release " millions of ton s " of lava from beneath Earth ' s tectonic plate s , causing the surface of the planet to subside and be flooded by the ocean s . ( ) Background information . Using CGI to generate a flat plane of a volcanic environment which is in and creating deep water displacements with Autodesk Naiad gave the VFX artists who worked on the movie at Industrial Light & Magic an idea of how high the volcano ' s lava waves would be . ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 72 ) The movie ' s visual effects team put a lot of effort into trying to accurately represent the volatile nature of the lava . " " We did a lot of fluid simulations on the surface of the lava , to make it as exciting as possible , " " stated Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett . " " We found bits of reference to help us on our way . " " ( ) CG Simulation Supervisor Dan Pearson led a visual effects system that depicted the lava waves , based on the temperatures of the lava and whether it would form a crust . " " We wanted it to feel kind of like a crazy storm might feel on water , " " remembered Guyett . " " Every now and then I ’ d have visions of other movies where characters are standing on stormy rocks in the middle of the ocean and waves are splashing around them – Dan did a superb job of making that work . " " Pearson himself observed about the lava waves , " " They were quite violent [ . . . ] and Naiad worked well in allowing us to control viscosities . " " Simulations of the active lava involved about forty render passes . " " Animators blocked out larger splashes , " " Pearson said , " " but we mostly let the simulation do its thing . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 78 ) For " Star Trek Into Darkness " , freezing lava effects – in which the transition from lava to rock became the most difficult part – involved twenty different simulations . " " We couldn ' t just freeze the velocity because lava that was not attached to the main burst was already falling , " " explained Dan Pearson . " " We tried using depth values within the sim to freeze lava velocity , but that also left floating islands of rock hanging in space . " " Ultimately , ILM used Naiad viscosity values to internally coagulate lava , while exterior droplets continued to fall . Pearson commented , " " The problem was scale – the lava spurts were 2 , 000 feet high – so we had to make sure gravity was correct as falling pieces dropped through flame . " " ( " Cinefex " , No . 134 , p . 81 ) The lava encountered on Hanon IV on the other hand was footage of real lave from Hawaii . ( " Red Alert : Amazing Visual Effects " , VOY Season 3 DVD special feature ) According to the script of , James T . Kirk had taken up several dangerous hobbies , including the orbital skydiving depicted in a deleted scene , and rafting down lava flows .