NeMO Home NeMO Explorer image background banner image of tubeworms NOAA Home spacer
spacer image
spacer image
spacer image
Explorer Home Virtual Sites Concepts Multimedia Help spacer
spacer image
spacer image
spacer image
Skylights

Skylights form when the thin crust of a hollow lobate lava flow collapses after the molten lava beneath the crust drains out. Skylights provide an intriguing glimpse into the hidden world of caverns and pillars below the lava carapace. These hollow areas within lobate flows provide a kind of incubator where heat-loving microbes can bloom. Skylights also reveal the thickness of the lobate flow's upper crust, typically only a few centimeters thick.

photo of lava pillar at the edge of a collapse area
photo of a skylight
spacer image
horizontal bar
spacer image

Related video clips:
Snowblower vent | Lava drips | Skylights

Related Virtual Sites:
Castle | The Pit

Other NeMO-related concepts:
Mid-ocean ridges | seafloor spreading | seamounts & hot spots | calderas | Axial volcano
Hydrothermal vents | fluid paths | focused vents | diffuse vents | sulfide | anhydrite
Animal Gallery | chemosynthesis | biological colonization of new lava

Lava morphology | sheets | pillows | lava contacts | skylights | pillars | the 1998 flow
NeMO at Axial | the 1998 eruption | the rumbleometer story | lava flow animation

spacer image
horizontal bar
spacer image
NeMO Home |About NeMO | Expeditions | NeMO Net | Explore | Dive! | Education
spacer
horizontal bar
spacer
spacer imagePrivacy Policy | Disclaimer | nemo.webmaster@noaa.gov