Lava (pronounced lah-vuh or lav-uh)
(1) The molten, fluid rock
that issues from a volcano or volcanic vent (sometimes accumulating, occasionally
permanently) in a volcano’s “lava lake”.
(2) The rock formed when
this solidifies, occurring in many varieties differing greatly in structure and
constitution.
(3) In fashion, as “lava dress”
(sometimes volcano dress), a long, flowing gown, classically in orange and
black fabric, styled to recall a vertiginous lava flow.
(4) A shade of red which
tends to orange, recalling the color of red-hot, molten lava.
(5) As Lava Lamp, the
trademarked name of a electric decorative lamp made of a transparent, (usually
tapered) cylinder containing a liquid in which a colored wax (or wax-like
substance) is stimulated by the heat of the light bulb to change into randomly
separating, seemingly luminous shapes which constantly rise and descend.
1740–1750: From the Italian lava (molten rock issuing from a volcano),
from the Neapolitan or Calabrian dialectal lava
(avalanche, torrent or stream; downpour overflowing the streets). The original use in Italian was to describe flash
flood rivulets after downpours and only later to the streams of molten rock
from Mount Vesuvius. The once commonly
supposed link with the Latin lavāre (to
wash) (from the primitive Indo-European root leue- (to wash) was based on the idea of “a liquid flowing” but is
now thought one of those creations of the medieval imagination and it’s just as
unlikely there’s was any relationship with the Arabic لابة (lāba) (black
volcanic rock). Lava is also wholly unrelated to larva (an
early stage of growth for some insects and amphibians) which was from the Latin
larva (ghost-like, masked) which may
have been from the Etruscan Lār
(Etruscan praenomen; titulary god) which appeared usually as Lares (guardian deities). The alternative etymology is from the Latin labes (sliding down, falling), which
influenced lābī (to slide, fall or slip)
(a labina an “avalanche or landslide”). The only adjective in modern use is lavalike
(or lava-like). The old adjectives lavatic (1805), lavic (1822) & laval (1883)
all fell into disuse by the twentieth century (although their occasional revival
in the technical literature would not be unsurprising) and lavaesque seems
never to have been coined. The palindromic
Laval did endure in France as both a locality name and surname and is
remembered because of Pierre Laval (1883–1945), Prime Minister of France
1931-1932, 1935-1936 & de facto prime minister in the Vichy Government
1942-1944. He was executed by a French
firing squad in 1945. Lava is a noun and
the obsolete lavatic, lavic & lavalike were adjectives; the noun
plural is lavas.
The terms lava and magma (from
the Ancient Greek μάγμα (mágma) (paste)) are sometimes used interchangeably but
to geologists and volcanologists the distinction is that Magma is molten rock
which exists beneath a planet’s surface and become lava only when it flows from
a volcano or volcanic vent. Magma thus
does not always become lava, sometimes cooling and solidifying as rock beneath
the surface and sometimes collecting in a magma chamber. A magma chamber differs from a lava lake in
that the pleasingly alliterative latter describes the (usually large) large
pool of molten lava that forms in a volcanic crater (although volcanologists do
use the term also of lava which “sticks” to a volcano’s surface and doesn’t
flow further. They also in some cases call
the extrusive igneous rock formed when it hardens and cools “lava” although
this is not in general use, laypeople associating both “magma” and “lava” with
the material in its molten state.
The rock formations created by cooled magma at Mount Erebus proved especially interesting to those researching the history of the Earth’s magnetic field. Geophysicist Dr Catherine Constable (b 1958) was studying the data used to refine a model explaining the mechanism of the earth’s occasional magnetic field reverses (from the familiar north & south polarity to the reverse where they swap) and found lava to be a substance keeping a perfect recorder of the field. All magmas contain enough iron-rich minerals to detect the field and these align themselves toward the field as the lava freezes. As a result, the magnetic field at that moment is recorded: set in time and set in stone. Over geological time, quite what the frequency (or the rapidity) of the shift isn’t clear and while studies suggest historically there’s be a swap every few hundred thousand years, it’s been almost a million years since the last so while one “might” be (over)due, Dr Constable says there’s no available evidence one is in progress or even immanent.
Catriona Gray (b 1994; Miss Universe 2018) in lava dress by Filipino designer Mak Tumang which used a image of lava flowing down the portrait of the Mayon Volcano rendered, in Swarovski crystals, Bangkok’s Impact Arena, Thailand, December 2018 (left) and lava flow on Tungurahua volcano, Huambalo, Ecuador (right).
Catriona Gray on the catwalk, lava flowing.
Lava cup-cakes
Lava cakes can pay tributes
to volcanologists in different ways.
They can feature a magna chamber which, upon slicing can feed a lava
flow or they can formed with an exposed crater in which sits a lava lake. Professional chefs can produce the effects
with room-temperature “lava” but usually these are for display and the cakes
work best with hot, melted chocolate and obsessives use a variety of
ingredients (peanut butter, raspberries, orange colored icing et al) to attempt
to emulate the variegated colors of the real stuff. They work best with dark chocolate but
sweeter types can be used (or a blend). Lava
cakes can be made at larger scales but the laws of physics (both thermal and
structural) mean full-sized constructions can be challenging (and messy) so
most produce lava cup-cakes. Because, in
a sense, lava cakes are a kind of civil engineering, some very complex recipes
have been created but the following will make 6-8 cup-cakes (depending on the
size of the muffin tins) and it has the virtue of simplicity:
Ingredients
4 tablespoons of unsalted
butter at room temperature (plus some with which to grease the muffin tray).
A third of a cup of granulated
sugar (plus some to sprinkle in the muffin tray).
3 large eggs.
A third of a cup of all-purpose
flour.
A quarter teaspoon of salt.
8 ounces of dark chocolate,
melted (for best results, delay the melt process until ready to blend (step (8)
below).
6-8 squares (from the
standard blocks) of dark chocolate.
Icing (confectioners')
sugar, for dusting.
Whipped cream or ice cream,
for serving (optional).
Fruit for serving (optional and most choose a red or orange variety).
Instructions
(1) Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C).
(2) Grease the cups of muffin
tray with butter, ensuring the coasting is light and consistent.
(3) Sprinkle some granulated
sugar over the muffin tray and ensure each has buttered cup has a consistent
coating. Shake off any excess grains.
(4) Spoon some granulated
sugar into each cup, swirling to make sure the cup is completely lined.
(5) Blend the butter and
granulated sugar until the mix is creamy.
(6) To this mix, as the
eggs, one at a time, blending them in after each addition.
(7) To this mix, beat in
flour and salt (on a low speed) until combined.
(8) To this mix, add the
molten chocolate, and beat until combined.
Don’t be off-put if the mix seems either more or less viscous that you
might expect.
(9) Pour mix into the
greased cups. Fill only to half-way.
(10) In the centre of each
cup, place one of the chocolate squares.
(11) Add the remaining mix
to each cup but, because the mix will expand, don’t fill higher than three-quarters.
(12) Put tray into the
heated oven, baking until the middle of the cakes no longer jiggle (should be
no more than 8-12 minutes and if left too long, they’ll cease to be lava cup-cakes
and become chocolate cup-cakes). Because
there’s some risk of spillage, place baking paper underneath the tray.
(13) Remove tray from oven
and allow it to sit for 7-8 minutes.
(14) Up turn tray on a plate
or other suitable flat surface and remove cup-cakes so the conical aspect
resembles volcano.
(15) Dust with the icing (confectioner's)
sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, adding some sort of
fruit if desired. Upon being sliced, the
magma should ooze out, lava-like.
The Lava Lamp
The decorative lava lamp was invented in 1963
by Edward Craven Walker (1918-2000), a Word War II (1939-1945) RAF pilot who
was inspired by a rigged-up egg-timer he saw in a pub, the device made with oil
and water in a bottle. Oil and water
being two immiscible (unable to mix) fluids, the time worked by shaking the
bottle, the egg deemed to be ready when the resulting blobs of oil had re-coagulated. Knowing the world was well-supplied with
cheap, reliable egg-timers, Craven saw little point in “making a better mousetrap”
but he found the behavior of the blobs a pleasing piece of art and in his garage
experimented with different fluids until he found a pleasing combination which
produced just the effect he’d envisaged.
The characteristic shape of the lamp came about because the one seen in
the pub used a standard cocktail shaker and the container in which Craven undertook
his early research was an orange-squash bottle which was made in a similar
shape; it proved ideal. They work by the
heat-soak from the incandescent light-bulb heating up the blobs, lowering both their
density and the liquid's surface tension. As the warmed blobs rise, they cool, lose buoyancy
thus descend to the base where a wire with an active current breaks their surface
tension, inducing re-coagulation.
Although associated with psychedelia, as well as lurid colors (the range expanded since the introduction of LEDs), lava lamps with plain black blobs in clear fluid are available.
The first lava lamp patent (Lava
Lamp is a registered trademark in some jurisdictions) was applied for in 1963
and they were first displayed in 1965.
Very popular in the early-mid 1970s, by the 1980s the fad had passed,
not because of the popular association of them with stoners imagined sitting
staring at one for hours while the Grateful Dead played on the turntable,
endlessly on repeat but because they’d come to be thought of as plastic kitsch. However, they never quite went away and while
there are spikes in demand (associated usually with some appearance in some
prominent piece of popular culture), there is clearly a constant demand for
those who just like the look while others furnish according to retro schemes or
like the odd ironic piece among their conspicuous good taste.
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