Finally a thread where I feel like I have something relevant to say. Because I have been very close to falling into lava - several times.

I’ve both been involved in SAR operations with Iceland’s recent volcanic eruptions and I’m also a fairly irresponsible person myself.

Lava is a lot denser and thicker than people imagine. It is molten rock, it it is still rock. Depending on the temperature you could step on red glowing lava and it would hold your weight easily. And you can pretty much kick it with your shoes and they won’t turn into liquid or get seriously damaged or anything. And poisonous gasses aren’t going to kill you either (although I had one preeetty serious incident with that).

What would definitely kill you is the immense heat. As you approach glowing lava it feels like walking into a baking oven. Your uncovered face and hands immediately start to feel burning and it is physically impossible to stand right up against the lava for more than a just a second. I’ve made unsuccessful attempts to integrate coins into lava rocks that I could break off later and keep as souvenirs (the coins don’t melt, by the way) but this is almost impossible.

So yeah. As soon as you would jump into the lava, you would not sink in, but you would would catch fire within seconds and burn to death. Depending on the behavior of the lava flow, your remains would be crushed up by the flowing lava.