Amazing Footage Of Lava Blobs Dropping Into The Ocean

The YouTube sensation kawika singson has recently posted a handful of incredible videos of thick, molten lava flowing into the Pacific Ocean, like the clip shown above.

He uses a Go Pro to get these up-close shots of the scalding lava that's well over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Here's some footage of lava flowing from the Kilauea volcano, which is part of the Hawaiian Islands.

You can see the steam pouring form the ocean surface in the clip above as the boiling-hot lava hits the cool water, instantly causing some of the water to evaporate as steam.

This lava is flowing from what geologists call a hot spot that is located deep under the ocean surface beneath Earth's crust. Hot spots form above mantle plumes that reach a sweltering 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, which melts the rock around them.

The molten rock, or magma, rises through the hot spot eventually reaching Earth's crust in the form of an active volcano that spews lava.

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In the case of the Hawaiian Islands, these hot spots initially formed under-water volcanoes. When the lava hit the cold, ocean water, it quickly hardened. With each new eruption, the volcano grew higher until it broke the ocean surface.

Earth's hot spots travel with tectonic plates. This is why there is a chain of Hawaiian Islands. Today, the hot spot is below the island of Hawaii, which formed 4.5 million years after the island of Kauai.

Check out one of kawika singson full lava videos below: