Recently, I was speaking with one of my students about volcanoes. Although I teach World History and Math, students tend to think their teachers are experts on everything… but I am not. Whenever this happens, I like to role model what anyone should do when they have a question they can’t answer: look it up.

We did a quick google search of volcanoes and stumbled across one that appeared to have blue lava.

<br><center>http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/photos/000/758/75878.jpg
*Kawah Ijen Volcano in Indonesia*</center><br>

Although my student and I were amazed, I assumed the photographs involved some kind of special effect or filter applied to them. I figured they could not possibly be real.

We did a little more research and discovered I was dead wrong. The photographs were 100% real. However, the lava was not blue at all.

Please don’t worry, this is not going to be about an optical illusion like that crazy gold and white/blue and black dress from a few years ago.

<br><center>http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_slatest/2015/02/26/the_dress/150226_SLATEST_TheDress-proof590.jpg.CROP.cq5dam_web_1280_1280_jpeg.jpg</center><br>

### This is actual science!

So stand back while I “do some science”! (Actually, there is no need to worry, I’m going to leave the science to the experts.)

According to Oliver Grunewald, a photographer who has been documenting the Kawah Ijen volcano in Indonesia, the blue glow is actually caused by sulfuric gases that burn due to the heat of the lava.

As my buddies in the chemistry department will tell you, fire requires oxygen (those guys are constantly “sciencing”). When the heated sulfur reaches the surface, it comes in contact with oxygen in the air. This combination results in the blue flames. These flames can reach heights of 16 feet. Some of the gas even turns liquid and flows down the mountain. This gives the appearance of the blue lava.

<br><center>http://all-that-is-interesting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/KawahIjenFirePit.jpg
*Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. This is indeed blue, but it is because of the sulfur.*</center><br>

Although I learned some really interesting information, the real benefit was assisting my student while he practiced the essential life skill of finding answers on his own. When a teaching moment like this spontaneously pops up, it is like striking “teaching gold”. The student was incredibly motivated to keep digging in order to find more information about this topic. In the end, he read a National Geographic article on Kawah Ijen and is now looking for other examples of this phenomenon. If I had merely dropped the article in front of him and told him to read it, he would have rolled his eyes and complied. But by seeking it out on his own, he was truly inspired.

If you would like more information, please check out this site:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140130-kawah-ijen-blue-flame-volcanoes-sulfur-indonesia-pictures/

*Image Links* [1]( http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/photos/000/758/75878.jpg
), [2]( http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_slatest/2015/02/26/the_dress/150226_SLATEST_TheDress-proof590.jpg.CROP.cq5dam_web_1280_1280_jpeg.jpg), [3]( http://all-that-is-interesting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/KawahIjenFirePit.jpg)