How awesome is THIS!

This unusual “blue lava” phenomenon was caught by a few of the locals.  Usually when we think of lava we think of reddish orange melted rock.  Apparently though there is a fairly rare phenomenon that does happen from time to time.  Lava can come out blue and in this Indonesian volcano that is exactly what happened when it erupted.

This is a bit of geographic information on this unusual formation:

The Ijen volcanic complex is a collection of stratovolcanoes in East Java, containing a large cauldron-shaped “caldera” that is approximately 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) across. The highest peak belongs to the volcano Gunung Merapi, which very appropriately, if unoriginally, translates as “mountain of fire.”

This emission of thermal radiation gives lava its red hue. In this case, however, the lava is actually burning something else: pockets of sulfur, which spew out of the volcanic crevices along with the molten rock.

Let’s watch a blue lava volcano in the video on page 2

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