WEBVTT - Sailor on a Sea of Lava 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.760 My La. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:14.159 production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.880 Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.680 Joe McCormick and Robert. Are we gonna be talking about 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.680 hot lava today? Oh? Yeah, yeah, We're definitely gonna be 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.720 talking about hot lava. Um, this was. This is an 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.360 episode that I was inspired for us to put together 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.000 because I mean, lava is always cool. Was we'll get 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.680 into in a minute. They're like lava, lakes of lava, 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.240 rivers of lava. It pops up in a lot of 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:43.000 our favorite uh science fiction and fantasy franchises, but of 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:47.400 course in the real world, it's also incredibly interesting. It's uh, 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.160 it's it's there's something almost kind of holy about being 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.040 either in the presence of lava or being in places 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:58.080 where lava has recently been And standard terminology insert the 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:01.080 term for molten rock when it's still bottled up below 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.440 the Earth's surface is magma, and the exact same stuff 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.760 is called lava once it breaches the surface in an eruption. 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.320 So if it's on the surface of the Earth, basically 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:12.520 if you're looking at it, if you're watching it form 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.760 a river across the black fields of rock. It is 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.320 now lava right, yes, now, I recently had the privilege 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.360 this just was just last weekend. Actually, um, just a 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.600 little over a week ago. I had the privilege of 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:30.320 getting to hike the Kilauea Ekey Trail in Volcano National 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.440 Park in Hawaii with my family and with some friends. Uh. 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.759 This is a hike that I'd done twenty years ago 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.119 and I always wanted to do again. I always wanted 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:40.800 to you know, be able to bring my my wife 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:42.319 on the trip, and then you know, bring my son 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:46.240 on the trip. And Uh, if anyone out there is 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.960 considering going to the island of Hawaii, I highly recommend 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:53.640 this particular walk. It's it's very popular. It's not not 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.280 a trade secret or anything. It's a three point three 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:00.400 mile loop. It takes you around down and then straight 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:05.120 across Kilauea Ekey Crater. Uh. Today it just just like 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:07.520 you know it was twenty years ago. It's this beautiful 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:14.120 landscape of black cracked volcanic terrain, um with with vegetation. Uh, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.040 you know at the top. So the hike itself gives 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.440 you this this wonderful transformation. You get to walk through 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.480 almost this kind of rainforest setting. Uh. Then you you know, 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.960 you go down uh the edge of the crater, and 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:26.679 then you go into the bottom of the crater, where 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.320 it's like another planet. It's it's truly unlike anywhere else 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.960 I've been, just a really unique and beautiful place. One 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.160 of the things I remember that we talked about in 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:41.280 our episodes on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius was about 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.880 how you can track sort of the length of time 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.920 since the last eruption or or major disturbance by how 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.600 far vegetation has re encroached on the on the volcano 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.440 and that you know, so there's this horrible eruption in 0:02:55.560 --> 0:03:00.240 what was of Vesuvius, and it turned the area there 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:02.920 and too, I'm sure you know, eliminated most life within 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.040 a certain radius from the uh from the eruption site. 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:08.800 But then you get to see just like over the years, 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.040 the trees and all the vegetation just pours back in 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.200 the greening of the of the cone. And and there's 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.440 something I always found beautiful about that because it's like 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.440 the trees don't know, yeah, the tree that it's it's 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.200 always it's it's kind of interesting in both directions. Because 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:29.120 you see footage of of of the volcanic activity that 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:33.959 took place in this crater back in nine and you know, 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:35.760 you see the plant the plants are just hanging out 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:37.800 that they don't you know, they don't care. They're like, 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:39.680 I don't know. I'm still doing Okay, I haven't been 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.160 the leaves have not been burnt from me yet, so 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.560 you will sue me in the foreground. And then likewise, 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.240 you go back there today and you see the you know, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:52.560 the plants making their comeback. Um, right at the fissure point, 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.160 right at the place where where all of this volcanic 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.440 activity was was happening, where this lava fountain was shooting 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:03.640 high into the sky. It's beautiful. Yeah. So, like I said, 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.280 if you go to to Ikey Crater today, Kilauea Ekey Crater, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.640 you can you can walk across it. Uh, you know, 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:14.320 all perfectly safe. Um, the lava that was underneath your feet, 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:18.000 it's all completely solid now we're thought to be probably 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.080 has been completely solid since the I think the mid nineties, 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.120 they say, But but all this was different in the past. 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.800 Hawaii is, of course a young island formed from five 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.760 separate shield volcanoes. If you were to travel back in 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.720 time a million years, the island wouldn't be there at all. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.080 Travel back to the mid nineteen fifties, and this particular 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.040 crater was there, but it contained an entire forest at 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.440 the bottom of it. Um and this would have been 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.560 roughly eight hundred feet or two hundred and forty four 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:53.479 meters down into the crater. But then in nineteen fifty nine, UH, 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:58.320 there was this um this eruption event, spectacular eruption from 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.600 a half mile fissure in the crater wall. And then 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:06.279 in seventeen separate episodes, lava gushed from this event, lasting 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.080 five weeks total, flooding the crater with lava halfway up 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.240 that eight d foot crater wall, so forming the the 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.520 iconic set piece of many wonderful movies and video games, 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.359 especially to the Lake of Lava. That's right, um And 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.880 there's some stunning images of this uh UM. I included 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.040 one in our notes here, Joe. These just come from 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:32.240 the UH from MPs dot gov. You can you can 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:34.960 look up all sorts of information there about the eruption 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.240 of Kilauea ekey. UH. There's some great photography. UH. There's 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.120 also some wonderful footage If you go on YouTube and 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:46.160 you look for the eruption of kilawaa n nineteen sixty. 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.960 This is like a wonderfully old school documentary piece about 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.480 uh this event with all sorts of just glorious unreal 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.960 footage of of of you know, churning lava, spewing lava 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.839 fountains and so for work, which is wonderful to watch 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.839 either before or after you, you know, physically visit the crater. 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:09.960 I also love the dragnet style department of interior seal 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.720 that appears right at the beginning. Yeah, and the narrator 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.160 reminds me of the narrator from a lot of the 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.200 old Walt Disney Goofy shorts, where like Goofy is doing 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.919 different sports, so you expect Goofy to show up at 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.560 some point as a volcanologist, but he does not gorsh 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:31.479 that would shore your bones. So anyway, this is a 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:36.200 spectacular event. A fountain of lava shot nine feet into 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.640 the air, dropping gouts of magna at times the size 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.840 of bathtubs. Are described as being the size of bathtubs, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.520 and the resulting like a lava was was most impressive 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.560 I've seen it described in Park literature as a quote 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.719 churning lava lake. Eventually enough lava filled the crater that 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.799 the crack was covered up. Then the molten lava drain 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.640 back into the vent at a speed four times faster 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.440 than it filled. The National Park Service describes this occurrence 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:06.840 as quote a noisy whirlpool of red hot liquid lava 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:11.560 and black slabs of solid rock metal. Yeah, I mean, 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:13.840 it didn't get any more metal than this. Um. And 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.920 there's actually footage in that video I mentioned where you 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.520 get to see a shot of a of a lava 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:24.800 of vortex um and it's it's it's pretty, it's pretty impressive. 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.680 So even though if you visit this particular location today 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:29.720 you don't get to um, you know, you don't get 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.000 to see this this impressive lake of lava any greater, 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.760 you can you can imagine it, like the landscape still 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.480 speaks of it. Uh. The landscape looks like the top 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.640 of of of of a sheet of brownies, you know 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.160 that is cooled and has therefore um um you know 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:48.960 broken as it's kind of collapse, because that's essentially what 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.120 happened with the with the lake of lava as this uh, 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:56.560 as the surface drops down and cracks open. Uh, it's 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.640 it's just a wonderful, dynamic landscape that that not only 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.360 I mean, on one level it feels like a place 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.760 that is not Earth, But on another level, it's like 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:09.960 it's this wonderful, almost holy insight into like just how 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.840 dynamic the planet is and how alive our planet is. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.160 Now to to sort of get to the point of 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.640 the episode, though, I guess, yeah, the idea of a 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.080 lake of lava, a sea of lava, or you know, 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:26.280 certainly think of any footage you've you've seen of lava 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:31.960 flows when when rock becomes more or less like a liquid, 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.679 we can't help but imagine the fantastic possibilities, right ships, uh, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.040 sailing on a sea of lava, boats riding rivers of fire, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:45.319 cartoon characters surfing down lava on some sort of fantastic surfboard. 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.960 I think one of the most um you know, obvious 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:53.440 and perhaps outrageous examples that I can think too, comes 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:56.000 from the first season of The Mandalorian, the Star Wars 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.000 television series, in which we see our heroes ride a 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:03.680 droid piloted large down a subterranean canal of lava, which 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.520 I think is also supposed to be part of like 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.920 the sewage system. I'm not sure exactly how this uh, 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.920 how this planet um is really using. It's it's lava here, 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.559 but it's it's a fun it's a fun steement like 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.160 within the fantasy of the show. It's it's really cool. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.600 It's very you know, it's very hellish. It's kind of like, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.520 you know, the river sticks meets lava and and and 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.679 here's here's some sort of a ridiculous droid, you know, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.040 in the in the back of the barge pushing it along. 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.520 Um And then I guess this sort of thing happens 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.600 in a lot of video games. I'm thinking, like, surely 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:39.640 this happens in Mario, right, Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. In 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.000 Super Mario sixty four there's there's at least a couple 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.080 of levels with things floating around in lava, and the 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.120 one for the Super Nintendo I think also when you 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.760 get towards the end, closer to Bowser's Palace, there's there's 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.440 stuff floating around in lava a lot. Yeah, it just 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.280 makes sense. You gotta have your you gotta have your 0:09:56.320 --> 0:10:00.880 lava levels, and just about any video game it's bad stuff. Yeah, 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:02.360 it's bad, guys said, Yeah, I mean, you look at 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.320 other movies where where does the bad guy build his 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.640 layer and it's in a volcano of course, right. Um. 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.600 We even talked about one recently on the Weird House Cinema. 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:15.120 There was the Hercules movie where we had we had 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:18.760 the villain uh using a hideout in a volcano, and 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.880 of course the final showdown takes place within the volcano 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.120 over a lake of lava. Oh yeah, what was the 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.839 funny thing about the sword there or something? Oh, there 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.079 were multiple funny things going on, but yeah, that they 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.560 had that was where the rainbow sword. You know, he 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:34.440 had a rainbow sword, and then there was the sword 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.440 that could that was holding the phoenix in place. There 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:39.679 was a lot going on in that particular volcanic layer. 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.079 Now I was looking around for other examples of this 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.520 sort of trope. I went to TV tropes dot com, 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.200 which is always a fun place to bruse this sort 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.480 of thing. I was reminded that, Um, in The Hobbit 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.920 The Desolation of Smog, this being the second Hobbit film 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.920 from Peter Jackson, there's a scene where Thorn rides a 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.080 wheelbarrow on molten gold um sort of surfing in it. 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:04.320 I I had completely forgotten about this whole this whole 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.600 sequence in the movie where they add this bit where 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.920 they try to defeed the dragon by um covering him 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.400 with molten gold. Oh, I don't remember that either. I 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:17.000 did see that movie somehow. Yeah, I just saw it 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.480 last year, and I kind of blanked out on all this, 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:20.920 But then after I read about it, like, okay, I 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.640 vaguely remember that because it's kind of a pretty scene 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.640 where the dragon gets covered in gold, but then it 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.600 cracks the gold and he's free from the gold. They 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.000 ripped that straight out of the end of Alien three, 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.760 that's right. Yeah, what do they cover liquid lead or something? Yeah, yeah, 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:36.960 it's the lead works and they covered the alien and 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.280 I guess it's lead. It's some kind of molten metal, 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:40.960 and then you think it's dead, but then it just 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.280 jumps out. Oh yeah, it certainly wasn't in the book. 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.600 I don't remember that in the Hobbit novel at all. No. Well, 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.280 I also don't remember in the Hobbit novel. In the novel, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.000 did they like ride barrels down the river? Is that 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.160 in there? Yeah, they did ride barrels. I do remember 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:57.600 the barrel the row where they rode in barrels. They 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.400 were kind of I think everybody was corrected everybody, but 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.520 the Bilbo was like sealed up and then I think 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.160 they were all, you know, pretty seasick in there. But 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.400 um but I do remember that happening now. I also 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.280 read on TV Tropes that there's a there's a book 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.439 in the Culture series by n In Banks that Look 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.760 to Windward, which is what I have, but I haven't 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:19.040 read yet. It's apparently mentioned that lava rafting is an 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.000 extreme sport that citizens of the Culture participate in on 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.600 unfinished habitats. So it sounds that sounds on brand with 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.160 the sort of thing that people of the culture would do. 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:35.080 It's a moderately extreme sport. Yeah, yeah. Now, one thing 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:37.559 that's worth pointing out about about these examples and plenty 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:41.280 of other examples, is that very often, whether you're playing 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.280 a video game or watching a movie, you find something 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.720 kind of interesting about molten lava. In in fiction, molten 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.360 lava only seems dangerous if you come into physical contact 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.880 with it. So if you fall into it or um 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.960 or it's poured over you that sort of resinc you know, 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.080 into the lake of lava, then you're oomed. But if 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.119 you're just standing next to it or in close proximity 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.480 to it, you're fine, which of course would not be 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:09.600 the case because lava is extremely hot, as we'll get 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:13.120 into in this episode. Yeah, that is funny. So they 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.719 treated as like it's like Hollywood acid. It's as if 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.200 it only harms you by direct contact chemical reaction. But 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.760 of course, you know, a real lake of lava or 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.800 river of flowing molten lava that would be so hot 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.199 that it is superheating the air directly above it. So 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.000 like that would be, you know, being above a lake 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.040 of lava. I don't know exactly how hot it would be, 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.520 but it would be to some extent like getting right 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.800 next to a heating element of a broiler. Yeah. Yeah, 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.160 we're talking pretty hot, and we'll bust out some temperatures 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.440 here in a bit, but it's it's a fire chive 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.040 from sort of the floor is lava scenario, whether you're 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.880 talking about the Netflix game show or just the the 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.880 good old fashioned childhood version of this where the floor 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.319 is now we're imagining it is lava, and you can 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.520 as long as you don't touch it, you're mine. If 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.280 you make the jump from from the love seat to 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.240 the couch without touching the floor. Then you're fine. I 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:07.880 think the more act. If you want to play the 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:09.720 same game, but you want it to be more accurate, 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.240 it should be like the floor is spikes. There you go, 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.320 You know, like spikes. They don't hurt you unless you 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.040 actually like get on them and put your weight on them. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.440 What kind of gory kids are playing the floor is spikes? Though, 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:26.760 you know somehow it's worse. It's worse. I want my 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:31.560 kids imagining wholesome charring down to the bone, complete just 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.320 incineration of their flesh turning into a puff of carbon 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:37.320 that goes up into the air. You know. One of 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.600 the weird things about this is that I know that 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.160 Flora's Lava is the most popular of the childhood games. 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:44.880 Did you play Flora's Lava as a child? Oh? Absolutely? 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.040 I mean I don't know if most often we said 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:49.960 it was lava or we said that it was like, 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.720 you know, swamp water with alligators in it, or or whatever. 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.840 But we definitely played the games of can't touch the floor, 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:58.760 got to stay on the furniture because it is some 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.840 kind of hazard. See, we would often do and I 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:03.560 have no idea where we got this. We would do 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.600 the floor as an never ending pit. And I'm not 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:07.680 sure where we got the idea of a never ending 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.359 pit from. I'm trying to think back on well, what 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.280 what would I have been watching at the time, Like 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.000 what movies had a never ending pit in them? And 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.640 I don't really remember what specifically we could be referring 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.960 to their this the version of the game played by 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.000 a philosopher's child, you know, the real threat to them 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.080 is that they'll fall forever and be a left alone 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.400 with their thoughts. Well, I would think about this. Maybe 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:31.360 it had something, you know, maybe it had something to 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.200 do with the Masters of the Universe movie, where there's 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.840 like a never ending pit underneath Eternea, or it's supposed 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:38.320 to be a never ending pit. I don't know even 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.520 though if they describe it as such, or maybe I 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:42.640 just had this idea of a never ending pit in 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.920 my head and just assume that that's what it was. 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:46.880 You know, we're really getting on a tangent. But I 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:48.640 will say I think a lot of the terror of 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.480 the idea of a bottomless pit comes at the idea 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.440 of people imagining the very beginning of a fall where 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:58.040 you're accelerating towards terminal velocity, and it's that feeling of 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:00.280 you're going faster and faster as you followed out and 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.400 it's really scary. But actually, pretty quickly you hit terminal 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:05.960 velocity and then you would you would basically equalize, so 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:08.640 the acceleration stops, and then you're just floating in the 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.200 air forever. So it is like a it is like 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.880 a sensory deprivation tank that you just get to stay 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:17.080 in for for the rest of your life. Well, anyway, 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.480 we could keep going on this, but uh, but I 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:21.200 thought that this all might be a good place to 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.560 jump off and talk about the idea of lava boats, 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:27.920 both in terms of what we might loosely think of 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.120 as actual lava boats, and we'll break that down a 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.440 little bit, but we'll also even get into some considerations 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.680 of what could be possible if you were just really 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:41.160 insistent on on creating a human constructed vessel that can 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.800 withstand a lake of lava. Well, how might you go 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:52.560 about that? We'll get into that as well. Thank now, Rob, 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:54.960 I know that what you have in mind when you 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.680 say a lava boat is what we're talking about is 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.840 a boat that can float on lava. But my brain 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.239 went in a different direction with this, which was not 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:08.520 a boat floating in lava, but a boat made of lava, 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.200 or more specifically, of a type of volcanic rock known 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.919 as pummice. Will you go on this strange journey with me? 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:17.840 Oh yeah, I mean, when you decided to do a 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.760 whole episode about lava boats, you take what you can get. 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:22.720 This is kind of this is kind of the This 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:28.040 American Life, um uh principle of podcasting. You know, you 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.960 know an American and This American Life. You know, they're 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.000 gonna have a certain theme, and not every segment of 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.879 the episode is going to really match up with whatever 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.960 that theme happens to be. But but you know, it's 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.320 a it's a guiding principle for the episode. Well, I 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:43.480 think this one puts us in places that are that 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.960 are just as awesome and weird as looking at the 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.919 lake of lava and imagining floating on it. Let's do it, 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:53.399 Let's go there. Okay. So pummis is a very unique 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:57.600 and interesting rock which has the strange distinction of being 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:01.640 so low in density that it can often actually float 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.280 on the surface of water. If you you may have 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.400 observed this yourself, if you ever had like a pumice 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:10.080 stone in the bathtub or something. But if you've never 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:11.840 seen this, you can look up plenty of video. It 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.720 exists all over the internet. Or you can even try 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.040 it for yourself. You can get a handful of pumice stones, 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:20.040 throw them into a bathtub or you know, tub of water, 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.800 sink full of water, and there's a very good chance 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.240 that they will float like styrofoam, though you may get 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.960 some duds. I think not all pumice stones float, but 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:33.760 a lot do. Now quite famously, almost all rocks sink 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.480 in water. So how why is this one different? How 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.960 does this rock end up being the one that is 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:43.159 able to float on the water surface. Well, pummice is 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.959 a type of igneous rock, igneous meaning formed in fire. 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.280 So this is a rock that's usually a byproduct of 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.760 violent or explosive volcanic eruptions. And I say violent or 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:59.840 explosive as opposed to the slower, more gentle volcanic eruptions 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.639 that you would typically see producing the things we've been 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.000 talking about, you know, the rivers of molten lava on 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.680 the surface, or the stuff you'd see in the famous 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:10.160 lava lake footage from Hawaii. A lot of the Hawaiian 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.760 eruptions we picture are are the more gentle types of eruptions, 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.719 but more explosive or violent volcanic eruptions, which those are 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:19.800 the ones you'll typically see producing more of a kind 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.160 of uh an ash cloud like a column rising into 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.439 the sky. Very sudden eruptions um these are more likely 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.920 to release a lot of pummice. I think. Another characteristic 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.200 of pumice forming eruptions is that they tend to happen 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:38.600 in places where the magma is richer in silica, which 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:41.080 tends to make it more viscous. So you can think 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.359 about the different kinds of magma here. The magma that 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.119 leads to a highly pummus forming eruption is usually going 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:52.479 to be thicker or stickier magma. But how does it 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.320 turn into a rock that can float? So if you 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.760 imagine molten rock trapped underneath the Earth's surface, this magma 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.840 down there is actually not just composed of melted rock. 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.800 It also contains various fluids in solution, so it might 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.639 contain dissolved water, vapor or c O two sometimes I 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:19.320 think sulfur dioxide, and these gases are are all kept 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.000 dissolved in the magma because the magma is under very 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.200 high pressure. It's underneath the ground. So you can think 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.960 about the way that the CEO two dissolved in a 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:33.560 carbonated beverage stays in solution until the can or the 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:37.280 bottle is opened, and then the release of pressure allows 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:40.080 some of that CEO too to start coming out of solution, 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.320 turning back into gas, and to start, you know, it 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.159 starts floating to the top of the drink in the 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.760 form of bubbles. That's because you have undone the pressure 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.560 of the closed container. And it turns out that the 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.440 process leading to the formation of pumus during a volcanic 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.439 eruption is actually pretty similar to what happens when you 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:01.960 open a carbonated beverage, except it involves an extra step, 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.400 which is sort of the freezing of that that frothing 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.760 foamy product. So the process goes like this. You've got 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.760 magma trapped beneath the earth surface and it's got all 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.480 this gas dissolved in it, and the gas again is 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.320 kept in solution by high pressure, and then there is 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.720 a volcanic eruption in effect that the soda can is opened, 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.000 the magma rushes to the surface where there is rapid 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:28.320 depressurre ization. And now because the pressure is lower, the 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.720