HW_Volcano and the River of Lava
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Dec 6, 2023
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EES 0836
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.
In most cases, I do not think it is plausable to cool a river of lava like that, as the lava is too hot
and dense for water and or barricades. Later on in the video, they used around 8 helicopters to fly
in and drop coolent on the river of lava, which did nothing. Over time, though, I do believe
enough water will stop it. Down below there is a function to determine how much water is needed
to cool lava. As you can see, hundreds of thousands of helicopters are needed to cool down lava,
so it is not plausible.
2.
How many helicopters were used to help cool the lava? Do you think this would be enough?
Explain your reasoning.
They used around 8 helicopters to try and cool the flow, but I do not think that will be
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enough, as the lava is too hot and dense for the helicopters to handle. It was kind of
hard to tell but it was around 10, give or take.
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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?
130,000,000 / 7.72 = 16839378.2 kg of water is needed to cool the lava
2.
If a helicopter can carry about 900 kg of water, how many helicopters are needed?
16839378 / 900 = 18,710 helicopters
3.
How many days would it take if they were dumping one helicopter's worth of water per minute?
18710 / 1440 = 12.9 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?
20 x 9.5 = 190. 20 firetrucks would account for 190 helicopters
2.
How many days would it take if they were using this many hoses?
18710 helicopters of water / 190 helicopters a day = 98.48 hours
98.48 hours / 24 hrs a day = 4 days
We would need 4 days if we only were using hoses.
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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?
Based on my results from the calculations, the water shown in the film would not be enough
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, identify 2 significant differences between the scenario
in the movie “Volcano” and in the real-life scenario in Iceland on which it was based. Explain
your reasoning for both of these differences. (1 paragraph)
One difference in the Icelandic town is that they had their own supply of water ready, which was the
harbor. As for the volcano video, they had to bring in third party equipment, firetrucks, and helicopters, to
stop the lava. The main distinction between the two is that in the Iceland video, their harbor was used for
main part of the lava cooldown as a misdirection, which the volcano video did not have
.