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Lava Lakes

xkcd 2980

Hey, golf balls float on lava, so this should make recovering them from the hazards easier.

Explanation ➲

The comic shows Megan talking to Black Hat, mentioning the common myth that there's a lava lake in the crater of every volcano. She points out that there are really only around five lava-filled volcano craters in the world right now.

In true Black Hat fashion, he responds to this by creating a new lava lake on a nearby golf course. Given that Megan was still waiting when Black Hat came back, the attention span of most people is shorter than the time it takes lava lakes to form and that people generally do not intentionally build golf courses directly over active volcanoes,[citation needed] Black Hat would've needed to dig at least 8 kilometers of earth within a very short timespan. Since this action was prompted by Megan's remark, Black Hat likely did not build or move anything capable of making a lava lake to the golf course beforehand.

The title text mentions that golf balls will float on lava, making recovering them from hazards easier (man-made obstacles such as sand or water, with sinking in the latter being the more obvious hazard to change). The density of a normal golf ball is about 1.13 grams per cubic centimeter, which is significantly less than the 2.4 ~ 2.9 grams per cubic centimeter of lava. It would be very easy to retrieve golf balls from lava because of this, if it were not for the fact that lava is hot.[citation needed] Lava is around 800 °C, while most golf balls are made of materials that ignite at 400-500 °C, and it could also be somewhat awkward for any hand that goes to retrieve it. Not to mention that the interaction of lava with solids at STP tends to be violent. It would presumably also be extremely difficult to wipe lava from the surface of a golf ball, both while the lava is fresh and then changing to different challenges as it cools. So even if you did retrieve the ball from the lava lake, you might not be able to use it again.

These may be the 5 volcano lakes that the comic references (source):