at: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/update/ima, sampling the lava, for what are they testing ?

Question

At this site are numerous current pictures of the lava flow in Hawaii. Many times I see a geologist/official taking samples of the lava and cooling it off quickly in a can of water. What are they testing or going to test it further for? (yep, it's lava alright)

Answer 1

A lot of times they test the gas content, type of lava, Sulfur dioxide is one of the three most common gases that are part of magmas (along with water vapor and carbon dioxide). The exsolution of these gases from the magma to form bubbles and then the expansion of these bubbles is the force that drives volcanic eruptions, so gases are very very important in understanding volcanic activity. There is more informatino about gases at:

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Gases/

Scientists do some experiments with lava. Most of the time it just involves collecting a sample for chemical analyses. However there are somepeople who stick temperature probes in at different levels of an active flow, for example, to see how temperature varies with depth. Other scienteists use various tools to try and measure the viscosity of the lava.