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🌋 Lava Flow Rheology

Interactive 3D lava flow down a slope where adjusting temperature and silica content changes the simulated lava's viscosity, affecting flow speed and channel-versus-sheet flow behaviour.

Geology & Earth Science3DModerate60 FPS🌍 Earth

A glowing lava flow descends a volcanic slope from a vent, its speed, width and channel behaviour governed by a viscosity computed live from eruption temperature and silica content.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Higher silica content and lower temperature both raise magma viscosity. Low-viscosity lava spreads into fast, wide sheet flows; high-viscosity lava creeps slowly inside narrow, leveed channels, or stalls entirely.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust temperature, silica content, slope angle and effusion rate. Watch the computed viscosity, flow speed and channel width update, and see the flow regime badge switch between sheet, channelized and stalling behaviour.

💡 Did You Know?

Basaltic lava viscosity can be as low as 10 Pa·s, while silica-rich rhyolite can exceed a billion Pa·s — the same physical property that decides whether a volcano oozes or explodes.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D lava flow down a slope where adjusting temperature and silica content changes the simulated lava's viscosity, affecting flow speed and channel-versus-sheet flow behaviour.

lava-rheologyviscositylava-flowvolcanologymagma-compositiongeology

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install