24. Solidification of Magmas in Lava Lakes

Erupting volcanoes flow sometimes into pit craters located around them and form lava lakes. After volcanic eruption stops, magmas in these pit craters start to solidify and release latent heat of fusion to the atmosphere from its solidified surface. It can take years to complete solidification of the liquid magma in some deep pit craters. Pit craters are not explosion craters or vents. Pit craters are depressions of a localized collapse into a void. Time dependent heat transfer during solidification of magma in a lava lake in a pit crater is similar to ice formation on a water lake and it is shown in Figure 24-1 where X is the thickness of the solidified magma layer which started solidifying from X = 0.