HW Volcano and the River of Lava PDF

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Volcano and the River of Lava Disasters: Geology vs. Hollywood

Introduction In the movie Volcano (1997), a raging volcano has formed, raining a storm of deadly fire bombs and an endless river of white-hot lava upon the stunned city! As lava threatens the city, geologists need to work quickly in order to control the flow of lava on a downtown road. In the video clip, you can see they decide to trap the lava by creating a cul-de-sac of concrete and fire trucks, and then dousing the lava with several helicopters-full of water. We know that in Hollywood, everything works out in the end, but what if this was real life? Would it have worked?

Learning Objectives ● Quantify the process of hydraulically cooling lava. (4, 5, b, c) ● Critically assess the portrayal of science in the movie Volcano (1997). (4, 5, b)

Part 1: Watch the clip You can see the river of lava moving slowly down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in the movie clip. Helicopters and firefighters work to cool the lava. 1. Do you think it’s plausible to cool a river of lava like this? Explain your reasoning. I don’t think its realistic because there is so much of it. It would be nearly impossible to cool all of it as it is moving down as well. 2. How many helicopters were used to help cool the lava? Do you think this would be enough? Explain your reasoning. 3 helicopters were used and I think it’s enough helicopters but nothing can be enough to cool it all.

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Part 2: A look at the numbers In this section, the thermodynamics to quantify how much water it takes to cool lava enough to slow its flow has been done for you. Some information used to calculate this is known, but since this is all happening in a movie, there are several factors that are assumed or estimated. Most notably, the length, width, and depth of the lava flow are estimated using Google Earth’s measurement tools. Note: What we know based on the movie is that they are only trying to slow the movement of lava, not completely solidify it. All math is relative to this. In order to cool lava, emergency responders will need:

1 kg of water per 7.72 kg of lava Using rough road estimates and an average density of lava, the mass of magma in this scene is:

130,000,000 kg Questions 1. How much water is needed to slow the flow of lava? 1,003,600,000kg of water 2. If a helicopter can carry about 900 kg of water, how many helicopters are needed? 144,444.444 helicopters 3. How many days would it take if they were dumping one helicopter's worth of water per minute? 4.8 days

As we can see in the movie, it’s not just helicopters. There are also several fire trucks helping to cool the lava. Again, with some assumptions being made, let’s factor that into the equation.

1 fire hose equals approximately 9.5 helicopters per hour 1. Let’s say there were ~20 fire hoses used per hour. How many helicopters would this account for? 190 helicopters 2. How many days would it take if they were using this many hoses? 7.9 days

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3. Based on what you saw in the film, and the results of your calculation, would the lava chilling, as it is shown in the film, be successful? I don’t think it would be successful even after my results. Part 3: The real world There is often some grain of truth behind Hollywood exaggeration. In this case, stopping a lava flow by using water chilling was a method successfully used in iceland in the early 1970’s. Read this: The Little Icelandic Town that Survived an Epic Lava Flow Watch this: 1973 Iceland Volcanic Eruption 1. Based on what you saw in the Iceland film, list 2 significant differences between the scenario in the movie “Volcano” and in the real-life scenario in Iceland on which it was based.

The lava cant be chilled in the real life scenario. The climate is also not the same as in the film as it is not accurate....