HW_Volcano and the River of Lava
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0836
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Astronomy
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Apr 3, 2024
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Uploaded by ProfNightingale4108
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? 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.
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I believe this is possible because of hydraulic cooling. It would also depend on the density of the lava, among other things, if the lava would be able to cool down.
2.
How many helicopters were used to help cool the lava? Do you think this would be enough? Explain your reasoning.
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There are around 15 to 20 helicopters. Personally, I believe that more helicopters would be needed to stop all the lava that is seen in the movie. I think that more water would be needed in this case.
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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? -
16,839,379 kg
2.
If a helicopter can carry about 900 kg of water, how many helicopters are needed? -
18,711 helicopters
3.
How many days would it take if they were dumping one helicopter's worth of water per minute?
-
13 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?
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Around 4 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? -
If there were enough resources, yes. However, in the movie there are not enough helicopters, therefore, not enough water to cool the lava.
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.
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The first difference is that in the film, it was easier for the lava and the destruction to be stopped, with none of the buildings being on fire. The destruction in the film was not as bad as what we saw in real life through the article and video. -
Another difference is that in the film, water from the harbor was used to help with the lava and to slow down the destruction. In real life, it showed that people had to bring in water and use helicopters and fire trucks to disperse the water.
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