Is Lava The Hottest Thing On Earth?

Lava is molten rock that has been expelled from the interior of a planet or satellite. When lava cools and solidifies, it forms igneous rock. Lava is extremely hot, reaching temperatures of 2,200°F (1,200°C) or more. It is also very viscous, meaning that it flows slowly. The word “lava” comes from the Italian word for “stream.”

Lava is not the hottest thing on Earth; that honor goes to the core of our planet, which has temperatures in excess of 9,000°F (5,000°C). However, lava can be incredibly hot—hot enough to melt most rocks and even vaporize metal. In fact, lava is so hot that it can be used for industrial purposes such as generating electricity or making glass.

The heat inside Earth comes from two main sources: primordial heat and radioactive decay. Primordial heat is leftover energy from when our planet first formed 4.6 billion years ago while radioactive decay refers to the release of energy by unstable atoms as they break down into smaller atoms over time—this process generates a lot of heat! This internal heat makes its way to Earth’s surface through convection currents in the mantle (the layer between Earth’s crust and its core). These currents bring hotter material up towards the surface where it eventually cools and sinks back down again; this continuous cycle drives plate tectonics and creates volcanoes like those found in Hawaii or Iceland.

When magma—molten rock—reaches Earth’s surface through volcanic eruptions ,it becomes lava . The temperature of lava depends on several factors including: 1) The type of magma 2) The depth at which it was formed 3) How much gas it contains In general though ,most lavas fall in between 1120-1260 degrees Celsius . And while this might seem incredibly hot already , there have been some exceptional cases where lavas have reached much higher temperatures . For example : In 1971 , an eruption at Nyiragongo volcano produced flows with temperatures as high as 1600 degrees celsius !