What is the viscosity of lava when it erupts onto the Earth's surface?
Tonya Wyatt
Dear Tonya,
The viscosity of pahoehoe lava (the most fluid type of basalt) is usually
about 1000 Pascal-seconds. That is about 1 million times as viscous as
water. Cooler, more silica-rich lavas are probably up to 10,000,000 to
100,000,000 Pascal-seconds.
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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