1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hi brain 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:10,880 Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. When Alaska's Pavlof volcano erupted in 3 00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: March of it ejected a cloud of ash four hundred 4 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: miles or six d forty KOs high. The stream of sharp, 5 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,560 Speaker 1: powdered rocks shut down air travel and major highways. Then 6 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:24,320 Speaker 1: twice in May and July, the U S Geological Survey 7 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 1: raised the alert level for pavlov which seemed ready to 8 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: do it again, but then they downgraded it in August. 9 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: Volcanic eruptions are notoriously unpredictable. Hans Lechner, a doctorial candidate 10 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: in geology and engineering sciences at Michigan Technological University, says 11 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 1: volcanologists haven't figured out the timing yet. He wrote via email, 12 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:46,440 Speaker 1: a volcano may show all the signs of an impending eruption, 13 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,920 Speaker 1: increased seismicity, high gas flux, surface deformation, but then never 14 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:54,440 Speaker 1: actually erupt and over time returned back to baseline levels. 15 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 1: Or he says, it can show none of the signs 16 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: of an impending eruption and then erupt. There are those 17 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:02,960 Speaker 1: in the field who muse about going on the offensive. 18 00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:06,720 Speaker 1: The volcanic preemptive strike if you will. The idea is 19 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: humans somehow modify the eruption process, either by initiating an 20 00:01:10,680 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 1: eruption under controlled conditions, or by downgrading the energy of 21 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 1: an impending eruption to limit the resulting damage. The energy 22 00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 1: involved in a volcanic eruption defies the imagination. Italy's infamous 23 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:25,040 Speaker 1: Mount Etna spewed about three cubic feet that's ten cubic 24 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,039 Speaker 1: meters of lava per second during its four month eruption. 25 00:01:28,080 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: In Lechno reports that in Mount Pinatubo's initial blast ejected 26 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: about two point four cubic miles or ten cubic kilometers 27 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: of material to an altitude of about twenty five miles 28 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: or forty kilometers. He says that magma represents massive amounts 29 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: of energy. It originates deep inside the Earth, where extreme 30 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: temperatures and pressures can melt rock. Molten rock or magma 31 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 1: is lighter than solid rock, so it rises, forming a 32 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: magma chamber that moves upward through Earth's crust. As the 33 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: volume of magma grows, the pressure in the chamber increases, 34 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: forcing magma through the volcanoes vents tubes formed by prior 35 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:06,559 Speaker 1: eruptions sealed at the surface by a lid of rock. 36 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:09,520 Speaker 1: If the pressure gets high enough and Events suddenly opens 37 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,360 Speaker 1: to the atmosphere, the rapid depressurization causes gases to come 38 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:16,880 Speaker 1: out of solution, which causes the magma to explode. It 39 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,079 Speaker 1: spews through the open vents, along with pulverized rock, steam, 40 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:22,959 Speaker 1: and various gases. In the case of Mount Saint Helen's 41 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: in eighty, Lecener says that extreme pressure had forced event 42 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: lid to bulge outward, a classic sign of impending eruption, 43 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:34,640 Speaker 1: and landslide took it off. To modify that eruption, Lecner theorizes, 44 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: I suppose humans could have triggered the landslide or removed 45 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: the overburden lid through say excavation or even donating a 46 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 1: nuclear device. Of course, nowton a volcano should not be 47 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 1: anyone's first plan, and drilling into the magma chamber to 48 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: release the pressures out too. Volcanologist Eric Clemetti, writing on 49 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:56,760 Speaker 1: Wired in likened that theory to trying to bleed to 50 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,640 Speaker 1: death with a needle prick. But we couldn't avert an 51 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:03,360 Speaker 1: erupt and by slowly depressurizing the chamber either Lechner wrote, 52 00:03:03,680 --> 00:03:06,040 Speaker 1: we have to get past the misconception that a magma 53 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: chamber is like a fluid filled balloon or soda bottle 54 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,200 Speaker 1: that we can gently insert a straw and suck out 55 00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 1: the lava and gas. We're talking about pressures and volumes 56 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 1: of material that are beyond the capacity of man made equipment. 57 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: He says, would have to drill down several kilometers with 58 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: massive pipes hundreds of meters in diameter to handle the 59 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: volcanic output that would rush from the chamber. The pipes 60 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 1: would have to withstand temperatures above three thousand, six hundred 61 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit that's two thousand degrees celsius, and pressures quote 62 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: beyond our capabilities to manage and even comprehend. And then 63 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 1: he adds there would still be the gases held in 64 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: solution by the pressure of the chamber that escape violently 65 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: when the chamber depressurized. Generally speaking, it seems the main 66 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,040 Speaker 1: problem facing human modication of volcanic eruptions is that it's 67 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:54,880 Speaker 1: laughably impossible. Volcanoes are too big and volcanic eruptions are 68 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,760 Speaker 1: too powerful. Yet, says Janet Bab, geologist with the U 69 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: s GS Hawaiian vulk cano observatory. Humanity is not completely 70 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:07,360 Speaker 1: without modification options, Bab rope via email. Humans cannot stop 71 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: or control an eruption, but we have taken some actions 72 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: to control products erupted from a volcano. Diverting lava flows. 73 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: For instance, Bab points to Mount Etna and that three 74 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 1: eruption mentioned earlier, which sent lava flowing into populated areas. 75 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:25,719 Speaker 1: With the lava flow threatening to overrun three towns, hundreds 76 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,160 Speaker 1: of workers desperately constructed a system of massive rebel barriers 77 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,719 Speaker 1: to redirect it, and it worked. They successfully diverted the lava. 78 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: Attempts to guide lava flows by bombing them have generally failed. 79 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: Cooling them has shown promise, though. In ninety three, when 80 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:44,000 Speaker 1: lava from a volcano on the Icelandic island of Haymi 81 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,040 Speaker 1: was flowing into towns, officials built barriers to stop its 82 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: progress and dumped seawater on the lava to cool it down, 83 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: slow the flow, and help it harden. The barriers held 84 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:57,120 Speaker 1: against the lower energy lava flow. As for exerting control 85 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,920 Speaker 1: before the lava starts flowing, Lechner says it's mostly science 86 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: fiction daydreaming volcanology research instead focuses on advancing methods of 87 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: monitoring and prediction. However, he writes, it's not absurd to 88 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: think that our own hubrists might encourage us to attempt 89 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:15,919 Speaker 1: to modify a volcanic eruption. Humans have a history of 90 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 1: large scale engineering feats that have forever modified the service 91 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: of the Earth. Today's episode is written by Julia Layton 92 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and 93 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: lots of other explosive topics, visit our home planet, how 94 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com.