1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:10,480 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogo bam here with a classic 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: episode from the podcast archives. Hurricanes and volcanoes are two 4 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:18,760 Speaker 1: of the most fear inspiring and all inspiring natural disasters 5 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:22,280 Speaker 1: that we humans contend with. In this classic, we talk 6 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:26,880 Speaker 1: about what happens when they team up. Hey brain Stuff, 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:30,320 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogle bam here. It seems like a scenario tailor 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:32,919 Speaker 1: made for a cheesy disaster film, the next big thing 9 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:35,599 Speaker 1: on Netflix, or a soon to be sci Fi network classic. 10 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:40,200 Speaker 1: A rumbling volcano on a remote tropical island, a monsters 11 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:44,839 Speaker 1: hurricane barreling relentlessly towards it, lava, lightning, stinging rain, flooding, 12 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Speaker 1: man eating sharks dropping out of the sky. It strike 13 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: that last part. This isn't Sharknado, but the odd coupling 14 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: of active volcano and hurricane still can be pretty cool 15 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 1: and scary, and it's very real When hurricane meets a volcano, 16 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 1: and it happens probably more often than you think, some 17 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:08,399 Speaker 1: strange and wondrous sparks begin to fly. How big those 18 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,520 Speaker 1: sometimes literal sparks become depends on a few key factors, 19 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:14,479 Speaker 1: of course, including the strength of the hurricane, how active 20 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: the volcano is, and the topography surrounding the volcano. Because 21 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: of those variables, it's almost impossible to accurately predict what 22 00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:26,319 Speaker 1: will happen when a big storm settles over a big volcano, 23 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:31,200 Speaker 1: but lightning, lava, rain, and winds are all possibilities. We 24 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,360 Speaker 1: spoke with Stephen Bustinger, a professor in the Department of 25 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:38,360 Speaker 1: Meteorology at the University of Hawaii, who admits we always 26 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,319 Speaker 1: get excited when a hurricane comes by. In Hawaii. The 27 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: volcano Kilauea on the Island of Hawaii, also known as 28 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: the Big Island, has been actively spouting off since n 29 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:53,840 Speaker 1: It's latest stretch, which began in mid May, has sputed 30 00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:57,240 Speaker 1: lava from the volcano, destroying seven hundred houses and adding 31 00:01:57,240 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: more than eight hundred and fifty acres that's about three 32 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: and forty three hectors of new land to the Big Island. 33 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: But in August, researchers from the U S Geological Survey 34 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 1: said activity from Kilauea's fission number eight, the largest and 35 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 1: most active, has decreased to only a glow. It's not 36 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 1: just the lava that makes volcanoes dangerous, though, volcanoes shoot 37 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: vast amounts of ash into the sky that can contribute 38 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 1: to a lot of rain and flooding. Oregon State University's 39 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:27,960 Speaker 1: Volcano World website explains that the ash thrown into the 40 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,079 Speaker 1: atmosphere can attract and collect water droplets, creating more rain 41 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 1: and lightning in the immediate area. When a tropical cyclone 42 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: or hurricane heavy with rain and strong winds is added 43 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: to that already volatile volcanic weather mix, things can become 44 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:48,160 Speaker 1: even dicier. Bussenger said, its circulation is more vigorous. People 45 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:50,639 Speaker 1: can be killed by the heavy winds that result or 46 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: the lightning that results. Bussenger has a PhD in atmospheric 47 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,400 Speaker 1: sciences and has been tracking storms, including ones that interact 48 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:00,760 Speaker 1: with volcanoes, at the University of Hawaii for some five years. 49 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: Here's a historical example. Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew 50 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:10,519 Speaker 1: its top the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century, 51 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,800 Speaker 1: when Typhoon Unia brought heavy rains just as the volcano 52 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,240 Speaker 1: was erupting. The volcanic ashen rock that Pinatubo coughed up 53 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: was washed down the volcano slopes and flows known as 54 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: lahars over the next four years. Those lahars, originally prompted 55 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:27,320 Speaker 1: by Yunia and later egged on by other storms and 56 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,200 Speaker 1: rainy seasons, eventually caused more damage than the eruption itself. 57 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: After observing tropical storm Flossy roll over Kilauea, in Bussenger 58 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: and colleague Andre patent Hius measured something else, a marked 59 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,000 Speaker 1: increase in lightning. They explained it in a paper in 60 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: the journal Geophysical Research Letters in quote, in the clean atmosphere, 61 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: you have large droplets form around few particles, and those 62 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,920 Speaker 1: large droplets tend to fall out before these large droplets 63 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: have a chance to get up into the upper atmosphere 64 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: where freezing takes place. It's freezing that's required for electrification. 65 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:05,600 Speaker 1: When you have pollution from a volcano that's producing lots 66 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,200 Speaker 1: of condensation particles, a cloud condensation nuclei we call it, 67 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: then you get many droplets. Those smaller droplets don't rain out, 68 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,840 Speaker 1: and they're more easily lofted above the freezing level, and 69 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: then you do get charge separation electrification. By early August, 70 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,760 Speaker 1: just before Hurricane Hector swung near the southern side of 71 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: the Big Island, seven tropical cyclones had already made landfall 72 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: across the Hawaiian Islands since Kilauea began as the latest 73 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,880 Speaker 1: run of eruptions, the three most recent according to the 74 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:39,600 Speaker 1: Weather Channel, where Flossy in, Hurricane Zel and Hurricane Darby in. 75 00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 1: With Kilauea showing few signs of abating, Hawaii may be 76 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:48,800 Speaker 1: facing several more chances at hurricane versus volcano meetings. But 77 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: even if a tropical storm doesn't directly strike the big island, 78 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:55,280 Speaker 1: even if it doesn't make landfall and glide over Kilauea, 79 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: even if the rains and lightning are somehow held to 80 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,479 Speaker 1: a minimum, can still stir things up around Hawaii. Some 81 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: of those byproducts, given the alternative, might even be welcome there. 82 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:08,159 Speaker 1: The heavy moist air of a hurricane can help clean 83 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,280 Speaker 1: the air of the bigger ash particles from a volcanic eruption, 84 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:14,480 Speaker 1: and a good windy storm is always welcome by some 85 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:17,720 Speaker 1: types in the islands. Passenger said, it's going to kick 86 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:27,240 Speaker 1: up some holacious surf. Today's episode is based on the 87 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: article Battle Epic When Hurricanes Clash with Volcanoes on how 88 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: Stuff works dot com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff 89 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:35,240 Speaker 1: is production of I Heart Radio and partnership with how 90 00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:37,400 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. 91 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, 92 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:43,400 Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.