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A dark , oblate thing drifts serenely on a billowy river oflava , apparently immune to the huge heat and kinetic energy around it . Slowly , it trundle forward until , just in front of the camera , its prow achieve a thick riverbed . There , as if indulging in the display for the sake of the viewer , the disgraceful berg cracks open , lewdly spilling its hot , radiate gumption . Red and warmed - over and slaked , it sits in its own goop for a few moment , concisely dam up up the flow behind it before proceeding onward downriver in its slow , diabolical way . [ exposure : Fiery Lava from Kilauea Volcano Erupts on Hawaii ’s Big Island ]

That arresting video was captured in Hawaii alongside " fissure no . 8 , " one of the speedy lava flows to emerge from the ongoing Kilauea Volcano bam . Ikaika Marzo , a local community militant , captured the video and shared it with Hawaii News Now . Hawaii News Now reporter partake it on Twitter , where it go viral :

An accretionary lava ball came to rest on the grass after rolling off the top of a flow from Kilauea Volcano during an earlier eruption on July 23, 1983.

An accretionary lava ball came to rest on the grass after rolling off the top of a flow from Kilauea Volcano during an earlier eruption on 10 January 2025.

Hawaii News Now’sreporton the unusual shaping states that U.S. Geological Survey ( USGS ) investigator said the object was an " accretionary lava ball . " Awebsitecreated by San Diego State University ( SDSU ) ’s geology department describes accretionary lava balls as aim that soma when a severe piece of of whole John Rock starts to wrap along the surface of a flow . It grows as surrounding lava stick to the hard inwardness in a volute blueprint " much like snow marijuana cigarette to a rolling snowball . "

When cracked open , they unwrap a spiral complex body part to the stone , fit in to SDSU . Typically , such lava balls range from a few inches to 10 foot wide , SDSU said .

It ’s not clear from the video just how heavy this lava ball was , but it does look to be larger than 10 feet . Live Science reached out to USGS with postdate - up questions about both this lava ball and the discovered emergence of lava balls in universal from this eruption , but several USGS researchers did not retrovert request for comment .

A satellite image showing a giant plume of discolored water beneath the surface

Originally published onLive skill .

A satellite photo of an island with a giant river of orange lava

An irregularly shaped chunk of mineral on a black fabric.

A satellite photo showing snow at the top of a mountains from above

A satellite photo showing two bright red spots in a green landscape

Cross section of the varying layers of the earth.

NOAA�s GOES West satellite captured this stunning view of an explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha�apai volcano, located in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga, on Jan. 15, 2022.

Mount Cumbre Vieja continues to erupt as seen from Los Llanos de Aridane on the Canary island of La Palma on Sept. 24, 2021.

Bright streaks of lava flow through populated parts of the Spanish island of La Palma on Sept. 26, 2021.

A satellite image of the Bogoslof Volcano shows volcanic clouds after a 2017 eruption.

The volcanic complex was found beneath the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Italian coast.

A purple sunrise above Lake Isabelle, Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado.

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

two ants on a branch lift part of a plant