The melting point of gold is 1,948°F. The temperature of lava varies depending on it's composition but the hottest lava is low silica mafic, which is only about 45 to 55 percent silicon dioxide, and can get up to about 2,192°F. So in that case yes, it can.
Other examples of metals and ceramics that can withstand lava's temperature include; titanium, iridium, iron alloys, osmium, nickel alloys, aluminum oxide, mullite, and silicon nitride.
Shallow bodies of magma supply heat. The rising hot water carries dissolved gold and other elements. The water boils about 300 m below the surface and hydrogen sulfide gas escapes. This causes the gold to precipitate.
First, although lava at 2,000 degrees F can melt many materials in our trash – including food scraps, paper, plastics, glass and some metals – it's not hot enough to melt many other common materials, including steel, nickel and iron.
Diamond is the hardest known material to date, with a Vickers hardness in the range of 70–150 GPa. Diamond demonstrates both high thermal conductivity and electrically insulating properties, and much attention has been put into finding practical applications of this material.
When lava erupts beneath a glacier or flows over snow and ice, meltwater from the ice and snow can result in far-reaching lahars. If it enters a body of water or water enters a lava tube, the water may boil violently and cause an explosive shower of molten spatter over a wide area.
Above a certain temperature, these bonds break – and even the coldest lava on the planet would be far too hot for DNA or RNA to remain intact. So no, you almost certainly won't find anything alive in molten rock, even extremophiles.
Flexi Says: Although extremophile bacteria have been found living in some harsh environments, the temperature of molten lava is high enough to break the chemical bonds that hold organic molecules together. Thus, nothing known to science can live in lava.
Many people are surprised to learn that gold can be found in almost all 50 states. I've got some bad news for you Hawaii… this is one place where you aren't likely to find any natural occurrences of gold. The geology simply isn't suited for it.
Water thick with gold and other metals is heated by magma and forms deposits in volcanoes. Gold ore is formed in the rocks of active volcanoes this way.
50% of peridotites in the lithospheric mantle have gold contents between 0.6 and 2.2 ppb Au, with a median value of 1.2 ppb.
To put it simply, a diamond cannot melt in lava, because the melting point of a diamond is around 4500 °C (at a pressure of 100 kilobars) and lava can only be as hot as about 1200 °C.
Less dense things rise above more dense things, so if you attempt to replicate the actions of the authorities in a particularly egregious 1997 Hollywood movie and build a wall of concrete around a massive lava flow, it won't stop it – the blocks will float on top of it, heat up and begin to melt.
Answer and Explanation: Magma is hotter than lava, depending on how recently the lava reached the surface and if the magma and lava are from the same magma chamber below the volcano.
The answer—quite surprisingly—is yes, they can! Not only do sharks survive in underwater volcanoes, but it seems that they thrive there. In fact, Kavachi's entire marine community appears to be accustomed to its acidic, blistering hot water and frequent eruptions.
First, lava is more than three times denser than water; because humans are made mostly of water, it's three times denser than us, too. The laws of physics therefore dictate that we will float on its surface, not sink.
In fact, as it spills out onto Earth's surface as lava, the runny rock's temperature is only a little lower than the hottest part of a candle flame: about 1200 °C. On the other hand, a big blob of lava contains many more bouncing particles than a small candle flame, so it has a lot more heat energy.
Lava won't kill you if it briefly touches you. You would get a nasty burn, but unless you fell in and couldn't get out, you wouldn't die. With prolonged contact, the amount of lava "coverage" and the length of time it was in contact with your skin would be important factors in how severe your injuries would be!
Some have thought to spray the lava flow with water, hoping it will cool and freeze the front of the flow. But the extreme heat behind the crust, which is still molten, will allow the flow to continue.
Rocks that cool quickly, especially the outer layers of a flow, are primarily composed of glass particles and tiny mafic minerals. This is why the outer surface of a flow is black.
The ice itself doesn't melt completely. In fact, the lava just slides down the cool surface. While a thin layer of ice instantly melts, steam from the reaction causes the lava to bubble and create huge vapour puffs.