WEBVTT - What Happens When Hurricanes Hit Volcanoes? 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.040 Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.800 Lauren volcabam here it seems like a scenario tailor made 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.720 for a cheesy disaster film, the next Big Thing on Netflix, 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.520 or a soon to be sci fi network classic. A 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:20.360 rumbling volcano on a remote tropical island. A monster is 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:25.000 hurricane barreling relentlessly towards it, lava, lightning, stinging rain, flooding, 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.160 man eating sharks dropping out of the sky. It strike 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.160 that last part. This isn't Sharknado, but the odd coupling 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.800 of active volcano and hurricane still can be pretty cool 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:40.840 and scary, and it's very real. When a hurricane meets 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.920 a volcano, and it happens probably more often than you think, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.320 some strange and wondrous sparks begin to fly. How big 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.720 those sometimes literal sparks become depends on a few key factors, 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:54.680 of course, including the strength of the hurricane, how active 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:59.240 the volcano is, and the topography surrounding the volcano. Because 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.920 of those variable it's almost impossible to accurately predict what 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.520 will happen when a big storm settles over a big volcano. 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:11.360 But lightning, lava, rain, and winds are all possibilities. We 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.560 spoke with Stephen Bussinger, a professor in the Department of 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.520 Meteorology at the University of Hawaii, who admits we always 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:22.520 get excited when a hurricane comes by in Hawaii. The 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.840 volcano Kilauea on the Island of Hawaii, also known as 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.000 the Big Island, has been actively spouting off since nine 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:34.040 It's latest stretch, which began in mid May, has spute 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.440 lava from the volcano, destroying seven hundred houses and adding 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:39.920 more than eight hundred and fifty acres. That's about three 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.560 hundred and forty three hectares of new land to the 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.800 Big Island. But in August of researchers from the U 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.320 S Geological Survey said activity from Kilauea's fission number eight, 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.400 the largest and most active, has decreased to only a glow. 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.760 It's not just the lava that makes volcanoes dangerous, though. 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.200 Volcanoes shoot vast amounts of into the sky that can 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.520 contribute to a lot of rain and flooding. Oregon State 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:08.079 University's Volcano World website explains that the ash thrown into 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:12.000 the atmosphere can attract and collect water droplets, creating more 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.639 rain and lightning in the immediate area. When a tropical 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.720 cyclone or hurricane heavy with rain and strong winds is 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.560 added to that already volatile volcanic weather mix, things can 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:27.720 become even diceier. Bussenger said, its circulation is more vigorous. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.639 People can be killed by the heavy winds that result 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.639 or the lightning that results. Bussenger has a pH d 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.119 in atmospheric sciences and has been tracking storms, including ones 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.800 that interact with volcanoes, at the University of Hawaii for 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:45.720 some twenty five years. Here's a historical example. Mount Pinatubo 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.560 in the Philippines blew its top the second largest volcanic 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.640 eruption of the twentieth century, when Typhoon Union brought heavy 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.760 rains just as the volcano was erupting. The volcanic ash 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.320 and rock that Pinatubo coughed up was washed down the 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.240 volcano slopes and flows known as lahars over the next 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.120 four years. Those lahars, originally prompted by Yunia and later 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.560 egged on by other storms and rainy seasons, eventually caused 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:13.520 more damage than the eruption itself. After observing tropical storm 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:18.320 Flossy roll over Kilauea, in Bussenger and colleague Andre patent 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.919 Hius measured something else, a marked increase in lightning. They 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.560 explained it in a paper in the journal Geophysical Research 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.840 Letters in quote, in the clean atmosphere, you have large 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.959 droplets form around few particles, and those large droplets tend 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:36.600 to fall out before these large droplets have a chance 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.640 to get up into the upper atmosphere where freezing takes place. 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:44.000 It's freezing that's required for electrification. When you have pollution 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.360 from a volcano that's producing lots of condensation particles, a 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.400 cloud condensation nuclei we call it. Then you get many droplets. 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.720 Those smaller droplets don't rain out, and they're more easily 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.840 lofted above the freezing level, and then you do get 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:03.160 charge separation electrification. By early August eighteen, just before Hurricane 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.640 Hector swung near the southern side of the Big Island, 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.040 seven tropical cyclones had already made landfall across the Hawaiian 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.640 islands since Kilauea began. As the latest run eruptions. The 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.480 three most recent, according to the Weather Channel where Flossy 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:22.559 in Hurricane Zel and Hurricane Darby in with Kilauea showing 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.840 few signs of abating, Hawaii may be facing several more 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.919 chances at hurricane versus volcano meetings. But even if a 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.120 tropical storm doesn't directly strike the big island, even if 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.160 it doesn't make landfall and glide over Kilauea, even if 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.600 the rains and lightning are somehow held to a minimum, 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.680 can still stir things up around Hawaii. Some of those byproducts, 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.200 given the alternative, might even be welcomed there. The heavy 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.760 moist air of a hurricane can help clean the air 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.039 of the bigger ash particles from a volcanic eruption, and 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.120 a good windy storm is always welcomed by some types 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.120 in the islands. Passenger said, it's going to kick up 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:06.520 some holacious surf. Today's episode was written by John Donovan 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:09.680 and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff has merchandise now. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.839 You can contain your liquids, electronics, and or body in 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.560 brainy style by visiting t public dot com slash brain stuff, 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.359 and of course, for more on this and lots of 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.839 other explosive topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:34.840 dot com.