Lava lava flows slowly (0.25 mph), with maximum speeds between 6–30 mph on steep slopes. An exceptional speed of 20–60 mph was recorded following the collapse of a lava lake at Mount Nyiragongo. The physical behavior of lava creates the physical forms of a lava flow or volcano. More fluid basaltic lava flows tend to form flat sheet-like bodies, whereas viscous rhyolite lava flows forms knobbly, blocky masses of rock. General features of volcanology can be used to classify volcanic edifices and provide information on the eruptions which formed the lava flow, even if the sequence of lavas have been buried
Cinder Cone and the Fantastic Lava Beds and the two Fantastic Lava Beds flows. The second Fantastic Lava Beds flow that all scientists but Diller thought had been erupted in 1851. At the Old Bench and Painted Dunes lava flows, the volcanic ash is brightly oxidized because it interacted with the lava flows when they were still hot. It shares its compositional group with the Fantastic Lava Beds flows, which represent the last flows erupted at Cinder Cone. Ultimately, the eruptive sequence at Cinder Cone took place over the course of several months. An unusual characteristic of the Fantastic Lava Beds is the presence of anomalous quartz