Credits: Social Media
Doctor forced to issue warning after Americans want to touch coldest lava on Earth
A scientist and doctor has been forced to issue a very obvious warning after some of her social media users said they wanted to “lick” the coldest lava on the planet.
The world is full of truly crazy things, from the shocking truth about dolphins to the rising health trend of fart walking. Concerningly, after learning about another crazy aspect of our little planet, too many internet users confessed to having potentially disastrous urges.
The coldest lava on Earth is still quite hot
Dr. Harini Bhat (@tilscience) took to TikTok last week with an interesting story about the world’s coolest volcano. No, the volcano doesn’t wear sunglasses and have a neck tattoo, it’s just very different from others of its kind.
“The coldest lava on Earth is called Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania. Some geologists even believe its the only carbon volcano in our solar system,” she captioned the post, which has since received nearly 100k likes.
The doctor explained: “It is called Ol Doinyo Lengai, which means the mountain of God and is found in Tanzania in the East African Rift Valley. Despite the Rift Valley being home to Africa’s most active volcanos, none of them share the properties that Ol Doinyo Lengai has.
“All other volcanos on Earth spew a cocktail of silica and oxygen, while Ol Doinyo Lengai is mostly calcium, sodium, and dissolved carbon dioxide.”
Because of its unique mix of compounds, Ol Doinyo Lengai is the only volcano on the planet to erupt Carbonatite, making it the coolest lava on Earth. While most lava is around 950 Celsius, Ol Doinyo Lengai’s eruptions produce lava no hotter than 510 Celsius.
Its lava doesn’t even have that signature orange glow, and instead looks like thick steaming mud. Though still hot enough to kill, a worker did survive falling into Ol Doinyo Lengai back in 2007.
‘Can we eat it?’
Of course, the internet struggles to take most things seriously, which is why the doctor’s comment section was flooded with comments like “Can we eat it” and “What does it taste like?”
“When u said coolest I thought u meant touchable and swimmable,” one person wrote, to which Dr. Harini Bhat replied, “I mean it technically is at your own peril.”
Another person wrote: “This is absolutely fascinating but I hate to report that, without this video, I 100% would have touched it.”
“I was absolutely ready to stick my hand in it like they do those 100-layer wax dip videos,” someone else echoed.
