Hawaii Lava Flow Diagram. This beautiful cascade of lava in hawaii is largely composed of pahoehoe type lava flow but in the left hand side some lava tongues have broken to form aa instead of pahoehoe. The four panels in this diagram show cutaway side view s into the moon to describe the basic formation of a cryptomare.
The literature on the viscosity of lava flows is meager. O pahoehoe pronounced pah hoe ey hoe ey which roughly translates to flat swirly swirly refers to lava flows with smooth rope like surfaces. Cryptomaria formed when low lying areas in the heavily cratered ancient highlands top panel were flooded by mare basalt lava flows black deposit second panel.
This definition makes it different from ordinary basalt which has more calcic plagioclase in.
By contrast lavas with higher silica content are more viscous and commonly produce either thicker shorter lava flows thick blocky deposits andor thick beds of ash that fall from the sky following explosive eruptions. An article by scott johnson in ars technica explained the process as follows. The following diagram shows the dynamics of the lava flows linking kilauea summit the puuoo vent and the east rift zone. The lava on hawaii is basaltic and flows can fall under two categories both with hawaiian names.