Legend of Korra

Did the water chick do anything special yet?

She defies Waterbending principles and bends without arms.

Yea I think lava bending is just moving the earth so quickly that it heats up, or creates friction. Maybe only avatars were known to be able to lava bend by mixing fire and earth but he found a new way.there's so many benders so there's bound to be many imaginative ways to do things.

Earth is lava at 700-1200 C. That's a lot of energy to produce (manipulate? convert?).