Sea of Fire in Polar Regions

Would it be possible to have a cold and remote polar region if the oceans are made of fire? By that, I mean that in the place of water, there exists lava.

v1ct1m0

Posted 2018-03-26T16:24:18.667

Reputation: 111

1This is an extremely broad question that would require mountains of speculation to answer. Try narrowing it down to just one of those questions at a time. – thanby - reinstate Monica – 2018-03-26T16:28:50.667

3What is the relationship between the title and the body of the question? – AlexP – 2018-03-26T16:30:45.560

1"oceans are made of fire" - what? How are they made of fire? You're going to have to explain a little bit more about what you have in mind to get any useful answers. – Rob Watts – 2018-03-26T16:33:13.760

1Make the oceans really small. A small fire lake. The rest of your planet can then be a cold and remote wasteland – Raditz_35 – 2018-03-26T16:36:28.520

A.k.a Punk Hazard or Freezeflame

– Pharap – 2018-06-04T15:26:08.683

Answers

Considering Earth as a template planet, probably not.

If the seas of your planet are molten lava, their temperatures would be in the 700-1200 °C. Let's assume 850 °C as an average. That is hotter than the mean surface temperature of Venus. Since lava usually contains greenhouse gases, your planet would be probably be a Venus on steroids, and its temperature would be the same anywhere.

Even if your planet didn't start out with an atmosphere (so as to maintain a separate temperature on landmasses not covered by magma), the magma itself would release gases that would make an atmosphere over geological time.

Now "cold" is relative, but the poles of that planet would not be "cold" to us.

Renan

Posted 2018-03-26T16:24:18.667

Reputation: 79 066

1I was thinking this could be doable if there were no atmosphere / no convection but you are right: the lava will make atmosphere. – Willk – 2018-03-26T22:09:40.630

I don't think so.

Back when Earth looked something like this:

there'd be no possibility for anything like a cold polar region. In those times, the atmospheric temperatures were something like 2000̊ C. Not really conducive to nippy polar conditions!

elemtilas

Posted 2018-03-26T16:24:18.667

Reputation: 23 045

Well, the winter poles could technically be 'cooler' than the rest of the planet. Maybe have a very thin solidified crust form over the molten lava (temporarily over the winter months)? – EveryBitHelps – 2018-03-26T17:30:16.060

@EveryBitHelps nope. See my answer for why. – Renan – 2018-03-26T18:41:45.583

@Renan, lol. I did say cooler. not cold :) relatively speaking of course. – EveryBitHelps – 2018-03-26T19:06:38.697

2@EveryBitHelps I got that ;) it's just that such a planet's atmosphere would imply in an environment just like Venus's, where temperature is kept constant throughout the planet. – Renan – 2018-03-26T20:07:53.537

Several times in Earth's history, there have been flood basalt eruptions that covered large areas with lava. From memory, one of them occurred in Siberia. I don't see any reason why they couldn't occur over the poles.

Worldbuilder_Wannabe

Posted 2018-03-26T16:24:18.667

Reputation: 211

The basalt floods almost certainly weren't the "sea of lava" you're picturing. They were probably more akin to the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō lava flows: a crust of hot, solid rock atop an inflating magma body, slowly growing around the edges as lava seeps out at the seam between the new rock and old ground.

– Mark – 2018-03-27T18:32:02.147