The fastest lava flow ever recorded moved at a scary speed of 62 miles per hour or 100 kilometers per hour! This occurred at the Nyiragongo volcano in 1977, although this isn't the only volcano which has recently produced high speed lava flows. Today's video discusses multiple examples of high speed lava flows, and what conditions are ideal to produce rapidly moving flows of molten rock. Thumbnail Photo Credit: Frame grab that was mirrored horizontally from a video by J.D. Griggs Staff Photographer, USGS, U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, Public Domain, https://www.usgs.gov/media/videos/mauna-loa-lava-flow-april-2-1984. This image is of Mauna Loa's 1984 eruption. While this does not show the fastest lava flow ever recorded, it does show a lava flow moving at a high speed of 40 mph / 64 kph! If you would like to support this channel, consider using one of the following links: (Patreon: http://patreon.com/geologyhub) (YouTube membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYeGh5VML5XPr5jYnzh3J6g/join) (Gemstone & Mineral Etsy store: http://prospectingarizona.etsy.com) (GeologyHub Merch Etsy store: http://geologyhub.etsy.com) Google Earth imagery used in this video: ©Google & Data Providers This video is protected under "fair use". If you see an image and/or video which is your own in this video, and/or think my discussion of a scientific paper (and/or discussion/mentioning of the data/information within a scientific paper) does not fall under the fair use doctrine, and wish for it to be censored or removed, contact me by email at [email protected] and I will make the necessary changes. Various licenses used in sections of this video (not the entire video, this video as a whole does not completely fall under one of these licenses) and/or in this video's thumbnail image (and this list does not include every license used in this video and/or thumbnail image): Public Domain: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Sources/Citations: [1] U.S. Geological Survey [2] Castro, J.M., Feisel, Y. Eruption of ultralow-viscosity basanite magma at Cumbre Vieja, La Palma, Canary Islands. Nat Commun 13, 3174 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30905-4, CC BY 4.0. [3] Auker et al.: A statistical analysis of the global historical volcanic fatalities record. Journal of Applied Volcanology 2013 2:2., CC BY 2.0. [4] Kyambikwa, A.A., Maombi, S., Sadiki, A. et al. The May 22nd 2021 eruption of Nyiragongo Volcano, DRC: field observations and reconstruction of eruption dynamics. Bull Volcanol 87, 88 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-025-01872-7, CC BY 4.0. [5] Rummel, R. Earth’s gravity from space. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 31 (Suppl 1), 3–13 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-020-00889-8, CC BY 4.0. 0:00 Lava Flows 0:48 World Record Speed 1:19 Important Factors 4:02 Ideal Conditions 5:03 Examples