article_snippet: Common sense would suggest that when molten lava meets a sheet of ice a sheet of ice will simply melt through.
article_snippet: Lava turns ice directly into steam which bubbles up through the molten rock to form bizarre glass bubbles .
article_snippet: Rather than melting straight through ice, Lava instead flows rapidly on top of it on a cushion of steam.
article_snippet: Steam from the ice below bubbles up through the molten rock as it tries to escape, forming a layer of glassy bubbles.
article_snippet: Professor Karson said: 'The first guess is that it is going to explode or it is tunnel down and make a hole in ice.
article_snippet: According to Alistair Linsell, a nuclear chemist working with EDF Energy and a science presenter with the Science Channel, the extreme heat of the lava is what causes the strange formations to form when the lava hits ice.
article_snippet: He said: 'the lava is so hot that when the lava is poured on to ice, ice turns not into water but straight into steam. '
article_snippet: The formation of all of this steam helps the lava to flow.
article_snippet: this steam is sitting on top of a blanket of steam rather than ice, this means the friction between the lava and the ice surface is very low.
article_snippet: the lava flows rapidly across the surface of ice on a cushion of escaping steam the lava creates as the lava moves . '
article_snippet: As the lava cools we start to get a thick black layer forming on top and that starts to trap those bubbles of superheated steam inside the rock. '
article_snippet: It is kind of like a natural form of glass blowing.'
highlights_snippet: Lava heated to 1,100°C turn ice straight into steam which then bubbles up through the molten rock to form a seething sheet of bubbles .
  