You were worried about acid rain?

Short for "Lava Haze", laze is a mist produced when molten lava flows into the sea, such as Kilauea's ongoing lava flow into the Pacific Ocean off the east coast of the Big Island of Hawai'i. But it's not a mist you would want to run your boat through, as it is composed primarily of hydrochloric acid.

Laze is produced by chemical reactions in seawater vaporized by the lava's heat. Steam (H2O) at 1200° F reacts with the chloride salts normally found in seawater (such as NaCl, CaCl2, and MgCl2), producing HCl and metal oxides. HCl mixed with residual steam escapes into the air and cools, forming a corrosive mist. The HCl can become more concentrated (10-15 ppm) than your own stomach acid, with a pH of 1.5-2.

So if you're visiting the site of an active volcano and you see what looks like fog, stay clear. Another hazard of boiling water is its reduced buoyancy, so make sure your tour boat operator stays clear.

Laze (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lazed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Lazing.] [See Lazy.]

To be lazy or idle.

[Colloq.]

Middleton.

 

© Webster 1913.


Laze, v. t.

To waste in sloth; to spend, as time, in idleness; as, to laze away whole days.

[Colloq.]

 

© Webster 1913.

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