Minecraft Ordeal 2

I have still not had time to venture out into the Desert to that Temple, however, I will be maybe tonight... Depends....

For now however, I've been trying to gather resources, this means expansing my mining... But I've had this lava pool blocking me... I've been supporting it with glass, and its getting bigger and bigger

So, I took myself a big of time to dig up and around it... Lighting my path up...

And this is what I found...

The trouble is, the lava seems to go off under the walls to the sides, its wide, very much more wide than this shot makes it look and its just as deep.... its around 8 blocks deep, at least 80 blocks long and at least 50 blocks deep...

I don't want to turn it into obsidian as I don't have efficient diamond pick axes to deal with it...