ELI5-How can lava exist underwater?
In: Earth Science
Heat doesn’t transfer from one material to another instantly. Someone could have iced beverage in hot sun for some time, even with the air temperature above melting point.
It’s just so extremely hot that it doesn’t cool down right away. And it is a completely separate substance so it doesn’t just dissolve in water. Water will eventually cool it, and as cool lava stacks up on top of other lava, the pile of rock grows and that’s how islands like Hawaii are made
It’s very hot. Of course the water around it will “try” to cool it down, but it will almost immediately vaporize, and leave the lava as liquid as it would be in air. Eventually it will cool down, but that process takes a lot of time.
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