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Lava Tube

Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

Definition

“A conduit formed of hardened lava, on or within a lava flow through which lava flows to an advancing flow front, also a cavernous segment of the conduit remaining after flow ceases” (Larson 1992).

Synonyms

Drain pipe of solid lava; Lava tunnel; Pyroduct (Kempe 2012); Rheogenetic surface cave; Volcanic flow drain (Larson 1993)

Description

Slightly sinuous and/or branched tunnels in the near subsurface, subparallel to the surface itself. Their cross-sectional forms are usually arched, round, oval, or keyhole shaped, due to accretion of lava to the sidewalls and the downcutting of lava flows into the underlying rocks. Lava tubes typically form in the pahoehoe type of basaltic lava, and seldom in aa. At the surface, lava tubes may exhibit characteristic features such as linear to sinuous elongated depressions (pit crater), chains of pits or craters (pit crater chain), or skylight-like openings (Léveillé and Datta 2010).

Morphometry

The lengths of inactive lava tube caves on...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nyugat-magyarországi Egyetem, Földrajzés Környezettudományi Intézet, Szombathely, Hungary

    Péter Gadányi

  2. Institut für Planetologie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 10, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Carolyn H. van der Bogert

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  1. Péter Gadányi
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  2. Carolyn H. van der Bogert
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Correspondence to Péter Gadányi .

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Gadányi, P., van der Bogert, C.H. (2014). Lava Tube. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_474-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_474-1

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Lava Tube
    Published:
    12 February 2023

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_474-2

  2. Original

    Lava Tube
    Published:
    09 September 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_474-1

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