• Question: what is the hottest point of a vocano

    Asked by 263tema37 to Kate on 10 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by super Au.
    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      Good question. Once the magma reaches the surface it cools very quickly, but the temperature of the magma depends on the type of volcano. The magma in the crust that’s moving towards the surface will be hottest. The hottest magmas are know to be about 1400-1600C (these are called picrites and are found occasionally in places like Iceland), most magma in most basaltic volcanoes (Hawaii, Iceland, Mid Atlantic Ridge, Ethiopia) sits at about ~1000C. The more gas in the magma the lower the temperature it will have. Explosive volcanoes like Mt St Helens and most of the South American and Indonesian volcanoes will be about ~800-900C in the magma chamber.

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