what is the average temperature of the magma in a volcano?
Rich Beluscak
Dear Rich,
We can't directly measure magma temperatues, of course, but we can measure
lava temperatures during an eruption and make some educated assumptions of
what the magma temperatures were. Hawaiian lava flows have been measured
as hot as about 1170 degrees centigrade so perhaps the magma is as hot as
1200 degrees centigrade. Stratovolcanoes have much cooler lava (usually
as domes rather than flows). There the lava temperatues are in the 900
degree range and perhaps the magma temperatures are around 1000 degrees C.
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
Other Categories
Other Questions
To VolcanoWorld