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As you walk along this path to ascend back up the cliff, another type of vegetation is thriving in the cracks of the crater.
The lake’s surface quickly cooled to form a thin black crust that readily broke into plates 10 – 20 feet across. Cracks between the plates were quickly filled by less dense molten lava rising from beneath the crust. As frothy orange-hot lava oozed over the rigid plates, they were “swallowed” into the lake.
This process of “crustal overturning” moved across the entire lake in a matter of minutes. It occurred many times during the eruption and for almost a week after it ceased. You are walking on a surface created by the final overturn of the lake.
The lake’s surface quickly cooled to form a thin black crust that readily broke into plates 10 – 20 feet across. Cracks between the plates were quickly filled by less dense molten lava rising from beneath the crust. As frothy orange-hot lava oozed over the rigid plates, they were “swallowed” into the lake.
This process of “crustal overturning” moved across the entire lake in a matter of minutes. It occurred many times during the eruption and for almost a week after it ceased. You are walking on a surface created by the final overturn of the lake.