HW_Volcano and the River of Lava
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Apr 3, 2024
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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 Objective
s
●
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 do think that is is likely that a river of lava can be cool like this due to the fact that hydraulic cooling is method that is helpful form of mitigation. The clip from the movie on the other hand did not have enough water to do so, also with all the other factors of availability of resources it is unbelievable in movie terms. a.
How many helicopters were used to help cool the lava? Do you think this would be enough? Explain your reasoning.
I do not think that there was enough copters, I counted about 16 helicopters, they were dumping good amounts of water here and there but there would need to be a massive amount of water to cool in down.
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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 hap-
pening 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= 16,839378.2 kg, so that is what is needed. 2.
If a helicopter can carry about 900 kg of water, how many helicopters are needed? They would need up to 18,711 helicopters
3.
How many days would it take if they were dumping one helicopter's worth of water per minute?
It would take about 13 days for one helicopter worth of water a minute. 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? You would need 20 fire hoses per hour. 2.
How many days would it take if they were using this many hoses?
If they were only using hoses it would take 4 days to mitigate.
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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? The lave chilling would still be unsuccessful because there isn’t enough water.
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)
The differences within the the Iceland video and the movie Volcano is that the actual Icelandic city was located near a water. Since an excess amount of water is readily available for the cities use it is under-
standable they had enough water to avoid a catastrophe. The Icelandic film also brought a ship to harbor to be able to help mitigate damages. Volcano was set in Los Angeles and the closest beach to it is pretty far in actuality.
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