Lava seas. How are they made ?

[Koopalmier]

If you have volcanoes at home, do not reproduce this, kidz.

Here's first an image to make my incoming nonsense more clear:


See, when there's an area that is low and surrounded by volcanoes... when a certain number of volcanoes erupt around the same time, part of the lava falls in the low area, but it doesn't get cold due to the heat of the other lava flows that also falled in the low area. As a result, it eventually floods the area with lava that never gets cold, and that doesn't quit the area due to the volcanoes trapping it.

Your thoughts about this (ridiculous) theory ?

[Artemendo]

Well, since we don't have enough volcanoes on Earth to see if this could happen, we can only guess... but it does seem plausible enough, especially if the volcanoes themselves are made out of rock much harder to melt than the lava is made of... since normally, lava just hardens and becomes one with the volcano. But since everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom can walk right alongside lava and only remark "it's hot" instead of dying like Earth people would do, it's probably some low-density, cooler lava. Probably it's no hotter than 200 degrees or something, so that would explain how it remains liquid and doesn't fuse with the rock.

[Sarisa]

I can't think of any rocks that melt at 200 C (400 for Americans) but tin has a melting point in that area. My chemistry isn't good enough to think of a compound that melts in that area (carbon compounds mostly melt/catch on fire at lower temperatures, silicates melt at higher ones).

[Artemendo]

Yeah, we're talking magic lava here, nothing comparable to the real world. The kind of lava that only burns you if you actually touch it.

[Sarisa]

There are crazy humans who subject themselves to 200 C air temperatures and live to tell about it!

(But yes, magic lava is the easiest explanation. I wanted to see if there was anything that could form molten lakes at 200-250 C using RL physics.)

[EpicGyllynn]

Koopalmier
Seems pretty plausible to me, Koopalmier.

Artemendo
It seems to me that if the realm was constantly subject to intense heat, that it wouldn't be able to cool... I don't know.

[PDoogan]

Magma chambers are where lava is stored in a volcano, if the volcano were to collapse (like Mt. St. Hellens) there a good chance the lava would be exposed. I think there are also some lava pools in Hawaii (though not as big as the Mario ones)

[Koopalmier]

That's not lava pools we're talking about. That's lava SEAS. It can't be part of a big volcano or else Dark Land is pretty much doomed. Or even the whole MK...

I don't think it's some kind of magic lava. Rather that the rocks are much more resistant.

[Vent]

Or maybe the lava is magic since the whole thing is a fantasy world with talking mushrooms and floating blocks, which means Dark Land isn't doomed.

[Koopalmier]

You didn't understand a single word, did you ? I justely said it was NOT part of a big volcano, unlike in the real world. "Talking mushrooms" ? Just call us talking monkeys then. "Floating blocks" ? They are a quite high technology, as you can see in M&L1. And it's an alien planet, so the volcanoes being made of a more resistant rock is more plausible than magic.

[Vent]

> Comparing a fictional race of little mushroom men to real humans.

> Saying the blocks are "high technology" when nobody has any idea as to how they really work.

> Calling it an "alien planet" as if it really existed in our solar system, or even had any science fiction themes at all.

You're not making a very compelling case. Near as I can see, a lot of things in the Mushroom Kingdom/World/whatever you want to call it can be chalked up to magic or cartoon physics. Does this sort of thing really need an explanation THIS in-depth?

[SMBBQ]

DINOSUAR, why did you even join this forum? We're trying to make as much sense out of the series as we can here. All you've been doing is shooting ideas down with no basis behind your arguments. This isn't meant to be rude, but it seems like you are.

Give Koop a break, if you've got a better argument, post one.

[Vent]

It's one thing to make sense of it, but things like the lava are pretty needless details. Can't that just be chalked up to cartoon physics?

[Artemendo]

But smbmaster does have a point. DINOSAUR, you're always being needlessly negative. A big part of your comments is simply quoting someone and saying "What." or "this is the stupidest thing I've read on here" or "What do you mean?" or "I hope you're kidding." How about making your own points instead of bringing other people down.

[PDoogan]

Aug 27, 2010 20:07:26 GMT -5 Vent said:

Or maybe the lava is magic since the whole thing is a fantasy world with talking mushrooms and floating blocks, which means Dark Land isn't doomed.

Aw come on, that's the easy way out! We're not here to blame everything on fiction, we're here to add some logic to the series!

[Vent]

Well, two plausible theories have already been brought up. What else is there to add?

[Koopalmier]

Aug 27, 2010 20:33:10 GMT -5 Vent said:

> Comparing a fictional race of little mushroom men to real humans.

I mean, they are evoluted mushrooms, like how humans are evoluted monkeys. They evoluted differently, but still.

> Saying the blocks are "high technology" when nobody has any idea as to how they really work.

You see in M&L1 that they use a lock and some gears. Plus you see one being kept in the air by a laser (although the use of this is unconfirmed, it may mean that this laser allows it to float). This pretty much indirectly means that, even if they float magically, they are still machines.

> Calling it an "alien planet" as if it really existed in our solar system, or even had any science fiction themes at all.

It's anoter planet than Earth. Thus it's an alien planet. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I'm not English.

You're not making a very compelling case. Near as I can see, a lot of things in the Mushroom Kingdom/World/whatever you want to call it can be chalked up to magic or cartoon physics. Does this sort of thing really need an explanation THIS in-depth?

We're making sense out of the Marioverse. As long as another answer than "it's magic / cartoon physics" can be used, well... um... wait, how to finish this sentence ? Bah, I think you understand what I mean. Just look at PDoogan's post for a less nonsensical answer.


Sorry for being aggresive sometimes, I felt a bit annoyed. ^^'

[Meta Black Yoshi]

I like those theories and I've thought up a few of my own.

For the lava seas, it isn't necessary that there be volcanoes. We can look at our own earth for an example, or really any planet with a molten core. Earth's core is made up of mostly iron with tectonic plates of a denser and more rocky make up floating on top of the molten core at the surface of the planet. Now between some of these plates there are gaps which expose the molten iron core, however these areas are covered by water which quickly cools the exposed portions. Now imagine that the water wasn't there, the molten core would be exposed to the air, and being closer to the source of heat than say something above sea level, it's possible that it would be kept warm enough to remain molten.

Just imagine the earth's lava fields but on a larger scale. There are actually some moons that are like this, and even earth used to be completely molten. Apparently, meteor strikes can keep a molten surface molten longer, so its possible that part of the ME is/was more susceptible to meteor strikes than other areas.

Of course that probably doesn't explain why Mario can get so close. One explanation might be that the crust of ME simply has a relatively low melting point (hot enough to burn Mario, but not hot enough to dramatically affect the surrounding air temp by a dangerous amount). Another possibility could be that ME's atmosphere simply isn't good at conducting heat. I don't think the problem is that Mario gets close to fire, you'd imagine that it be hot if one got close to lava, but you probably wouldn't be at risk of burning up just by being near it, though you could be extremely uncomfortable. The problem is that with the lava seas, we imagine that with so much lava around contributing heat energy to the air, it must be be extremely hot in those areas. Maybe the heat gets absorbed by the solid rocks or something, but for all we know it could very well be extremely hot there and Mario has just gotten used to the heat or something or just acting like hes not hot. He does regularly shoot fireballs from his hands after all.


Hmm, this post got a lot longer than expected.
I may try to scrape up some graphical representations latter.

[Koopalmier]

Mario went near actual stars in SMG (see: Melty Molten Galaxy) and it didn't appear to bother him. I think he's simply very resistant - after all, he also survived after falling from Bowser's castle in Paper Mario, which was probably in the stratosphere of the planet.

And, I don't think your theory is right, although it's pretty interesting and well-thought. Bowser's Castle (or, more precisely, the metal foundations around it) is... well, I don't know how to explain that, but there have to be a low bottom to the lava sea so that the castle's foundations can be founded on something. And the bottom shouldn't be too deep either. I know the castle tends to be shown on a small island in a lava sea, but in M&L3 there are metal foundations around it.

[Vent]

We already know Mario is implausibly strong, so it's not hard to see him getting close to a giant ball of hot gas and not getting hurt. Either that or the Luma allowed him to survive in space, but whatever works.

Same could probably hold true for the lava, unless the lava really isnt that hot after all, which I doubt since it seems to set Mario's behind on fire on contact.