WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Could You Outrun a Volcano?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff. I'm Lauren vogel Bomb, and this is a

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<v Speaker 1>classic episode from our archives. In this one, we were

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<v Speaker 1>wondering how feasible it would actually be to outrun a

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<v Speaker 1>volcano the way that action heroes do in movies. So

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<v Speaker 1>we looked up some numbers and did some math. The

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<v Speaker 1>prognosis isn't great. Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works,

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<v Speaker 1>Hi brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb. Here it's a familiar

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<v Speaker 1>cinematic situation. A daring scientist arrives in town to study

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<v Speaker 1>the local volcano, which has been dormant for centuries but

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<v Speaker 1>now seems dangerously close to erupting. Despite the dire warnings

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<v Speaker 1>of everyone around him, the intrepid volcanologist, perhaps with a

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<v Speaker 1>trusty and attractive assistant in tow, insists on scaling the

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<v Speaker 1>mountain to more closely examine its condition. But just as

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<v Speaker 1>the pair arrives at the gaping crater, it blows, sending

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<v Speaker 1>them running or possibly jeeping, hand in hand down the

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<v Speaker 1>slope early staying ahead of the raging river of hot lava.

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<v Speaker 1>Seeing any number of these exhilarating scenes might leave you

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<v Speaker 1>wondering what would happen if I suddenly needed to escape

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<v Speaker 1>from an erupting volcano. Could I outrun the lava and

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<v Speaker 1>make it to safety? Well, technically yes. If lava were

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<v Speaker 1>all you had to deal with while scrambling down the

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<v Speaker 1>side of a fiery mountain, you might be in the clear.

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<v Speaker 1>Most lava flows, especially those from shield volcanoes the less

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<v Speaker 1>explosive type, are pretty sluggish. As long as the lava

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't find its way into a tube or shoot shaped valley,

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<v Speaker 1>it will probably move slower than a mile per hour.

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<v Speaker 1>For example, the lava flow from the Mauna Lower eruption

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<v Speaker 1>of nineteen fifty was clocked at six miles per hour.

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<v Speaker 1>That's nine kilometers per hour. You probably wouldn't have any

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<v Speaker 1>trouble scurrying away from that. There have been examples of

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<v Speaker 1>fast moving lava, but there are few and far between,

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<v Speaker 1>Like when the Democratic Republic of Congo's mountaineer Gongo erupted

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<v Speaker 1>in ninety seven, Its lava was measured going forty miles

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<v Speaker 1>per hour that's sixty four kilometers per hour, and at

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<v Speaker 1>least two thousand people lost their lives. The unfortunate truth, though,

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<v Speaker 1>is that lava will be the least of your worries

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<v Speaker 1>if you're close enough to an erupting volcano that you're

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<v Speaker 1>thinking about running for your life. Contrary to what we

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<v Speaker 1>might see in the movies, the dangers of a volcanic

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<v Speaker 1>eruption are not confined to burning hot lava. Even if

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<v Speaker 1>you could stay ahead of the lava, you'd never survived

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<v Speaker 1>the pyroclastic flow that's the accompanying, burning hot, fast moving

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<v Speaker 1>cloud of ash, rock, gas, and debris. Pyroclastic flows are

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<v Speaker 1>the worst when they come from the more dramatically explosive

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<v Speaker 1>composite volcanoes, but they generally move at speeds greater than

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<v Speaker 1>sixty miles per hour a k a ninety six kilometers

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<v Speaker 1>per hour and reach temperatures between about two hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>seven hundred degrees celsius that's around four hundred hundred degrees fahrenheit.

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<v Speaker 1>By many estimates, the pyroclastic flow from the infamous eruption

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<v Speaker 1>of Mount Vesuvius in seventy nine c E reached four

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty miles per hour or seven hundred kilometers

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<v Speaker 1>per hour. There's obviously no way anyone's out running that.

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<v Speaker 1>And if the pyroclastic flow happens to melt snow or

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<v Speaker 1>a glacier. This creates a lahar and extra deadly concrete

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<v Speaker 1>thick mud slide slash avalanche combo. So, if you one

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<v Speaker 1>day find yourself flirting with danger on the rim of

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<v Speaker 1>an erupting volcano, we hate to say it, but your toast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Alison Cooper and produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tristan McNeil and Tyler clang Or. More on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other explosive topics visit how stuff works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts

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