VHP Photo Glossary: Spatter
1. Photograph by J.D. Griggs on 13
June 1983
Spatter
Very fluid fragments of molten lava ejected from a vent that flatten
and congeal on the ground are called spatter. Typically, spatter will build
walls of solidified lava around a single vent to form a circular-shaped
spatter cone or along both sides of a fissure to build a spatter rampart.
Photo 1:
Clumps of molten lava (spatter) hurled above the rim
of a spatter cone have already started to cool and develop a thin black skin
on their surface. Width of the image is about 3 m.
2. Photograph by T.N. Mattox on
24 August 1993
Photo 2:
Close view of cooled, solidified spatter fragments
hurled from an active littoral cone on the south shoreline of Kilauea
Volcano. The impact of the molten spatter hitting the ground flattened
the fragments into roughly circular disks.
Related photo glossary terms: