Carbonatite
“The strangest lava on Earth”
Carbonatite is one of the rarest and most unusual igneous rocks — it's essentially a carbonate-rich magma that erupts at temperatures far lower than typical lava. Only one active carbonatite volcano exists on Earth today: Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania, which erupts cool, black lava.
calcite, dolomite, ankerite, apatite, magnetite, pyrochlore
Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tanzania), Kaiserstuhl (Germany), Oka (Quebec, Canada), Phalaborwa (South Africa)
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Ol Doinyo Lengai's carbonatite lava erupts at about 500°C — so cool by volcanic standards that it appears black instead of red, and you can sometimes stand just meters away.
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What makes carbonatite lavas fundamentally different from all other known lavas on Earth?
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