The vast majority of lava out there falls into one of three types: mafic, intermediate, and felsic. They're also called basaltic, andesitic, and rhyolitic lavas, respectively. (There are other ...

Rhyolitic lava is felsic; the name is derived from feldspar and silica, which are present in high concentrations ... a massive basaltic lava flow covered much of India. The eruptions that created the ...

Once you're above 67% by weight silica, you're into "silicic" or "felsic" lava, typified by rhyolite. ... The former is more benign, like the Holuhraun lava flows in Iceland.

The dark, smooth maria of the Moon is made up of lava flows, ... Felsic lavas are often associated with explosive, violent eruptions, such as the Mt. St. Helens eruption of 1980.

HONOLULU — Prayer, bombs, walls — over the decades, people have tried all of them to stanch the flow of lava from Hawaii’s volcanoes as it lumbered toward roads, homes and infrastructure ...

The lava surface cools off very quickly as it contacts the air, dropping hundreds of degrees a second. Water flowing into a hot crater can get heated and trapped, and then escape explosively ...