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What is the difference between lava and magma?

Answer 1

Magma is melted rock stored in the Earth's crust, while lava is magma that reaches the surface in volcanoes or other vents.

Magma is a generic term for molten rock found beneath the crust, while lava is the term for magma that has broken though to the surface. In terms of composition, magma and lavas can be either felsic (quartz and feldspars mostly) or mafic (hornblende, pyroxene, micas). Feslic volcanic lavas (like Mt. St. Helen's in the U.S.) tend to be very explosive, while mafic flows as in Hawaii tend to be slow moving lavas.

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Answer 2

Mason Allen

Lava is molten rock that flows on the Earth's surface during a volcanic eruption. Magma, on the other hand, is molten rock beneath the Earth's surface. Once magma reaches the surface and erupts, it becomes lava. So, the main difference is their location: magma is underground, while lava is on the surface.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.