Question: How close can you get to a volcano before it burns you?

James Hickey answered on 11 Nov 2013:

Hi isobelr. That depends on the type of volcano, and what the volcano is doing at the time. Some volcanoes are ‘extinct’ so you can walk all over them the same you would a regular mountain. But when volcanoes are active and erupting then that’s a different story.

Volcanoes can erupt in different ways and that can decide how close you can get. ‘Explosive’ eruptions are those that go off with a BANG causing lots of very hot rocks and gases to be thrown upwards into the sky. You would not be able to get very close to these at all!

‘Effusive’ eruptions are very different and can often just be slow moving, but still hot, lava flows. An example of this type of volcano is Kilauea in Hawaii. With these volcanoes you can get quite close to the lava but not stay there very long – if you’re quick enough you can even run on it, but I wouldn’t recommend this. Just watch this guy do it instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e57D4oGoh5s

Or, in very special cases, and wearing heat-protective suits to stop you from getting burnt, you can get very close and even sample the lava from a lava lake! Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egEGaBXG3Kg and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DceHEBGVfj4