It's the ultimate battle between two extremes of nature. Which one will emerge victorious?

A collaboration between sculptor Bob Wysocki (assistant professor, Department of Art) and geologist Jeff Karson (professor, Department of Earth Sciences) from the Syracuse University Lava Project aims examine lava from both a scientific and artistic perspective, which are both admirable goals.

As reported by DVICE, the team staged man-made basaltic lava flows, poured down a specially built funnel, for students and the public.

The video below shows what happens when 276 kilograms of 1371-degree-Celsius lava is poured over a 1.8-metre bed of ice on a day that reached a top temperature of -11 degrees Celsius. Brrr! Standing next to a lava flow suddenly sounds like a good idea.

You can see what happened in the video below. Hint: there was a lot of hissing. And steam.

Lava Pour No. 5 from robert wysocki on Vimeo.