Looking for Lava T e next day, I can’t wait to take pictures. I


want to race into the crater right away. I need to wait and watch to make sure it’s safe, though. So first I search for signs of hot lava. It can


be hard to spot here. T at’s another sign that this volcano is diff erent from other ones. In most volcanoes, the lava is red hot. You


see thick, red globs of hot lava fly into the air or slowly ooze across the ground. As it cools, this kind of lava turns into a hard, black rock. T e lava I see coming out of this volcano


isn’t like that. It’s as runny as oil. It flows quickly across the ground in a thin stream no wider than my arm. T is lava is also an oily black, not red. T at’s


because it’s cool—for lava, that is. It’s only about 550° Celsius (1,000° Fahrenheit) when it first comes out of the ground. Normal red-hot lava is twice as hot. Yet I know the danger from this lava is very real. It’s still hot enough to burn me. In fact, I’ve got burn holes in some of my climbing gear to prove it.


a close-up view of the crumbly lava


15


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