Skylights form when the thin crust of a hollow lobate lava flow collapses after the molten lava beneath the crust drains out. Skylights provide an intriguing glimpse into the hidden world of caverns and pillars below the lava carapace. These hollow areas within lobate flows provide a kind of incubator where heat-loving microbes can bloom. Skylights also reveal the thickness of the lobate flow's upper crust, typically only a few centimeters thick.

Related video clips:
Snowblower vent | Lava drips | Skylights

Related Virtual Sites:
Castle | The Pit

Other NeMO-related concepts:
Mid-ocean ridges | seafloor spreading | seamounts & hot spots | calderas | Axial volcano
Hydrothermal vents | fluid paths | focused vents | diffuse vents | sulfide | anhydrite
Animal Gallery | chemosynthesis | biological colonization of new lava
Lava morphology | sheets | pillows | lava contacts | skylights | pillars | the 1998 flow
NeMO at Axial | the 1998 eruption | the rumbleometer story | lava flow animation