A new published scientific study shows that there is some truth behind the fictional volcanic chemistry in movie Dante's Peak.
Before the eruption Karimsky lake in Russia was absolutely clear and after it was like an acidic hot spring.
Before the eruption Karimsky lake in Russia was absolutely clear and after it was like an acidic hot spring.
In the 1997 movie Dante's Peak, volcanic gases quickly turn a placid lake into an acidic death trap as a family escapes burning-hot lava by boat, aided by a volcanologist played by Pierce Brosnan.
For a film that gets some eruption science terrifyingly right, the lake's radical transformation has always been a sticking point.
Debunkers had previously claimed that volcanic gases belching from the lake bottom can't acidify an entire lake in a matter of hours. A real volcano says otherwise.
The Karymsky Lake story.
Debunkers had previously claimed that volcanic gases belching from the lake bottom can't acidify an entire lake in a matter of hours. A real volcano says otherwise.
The Karymsky Lake story.
In 1996 volcanic blasts at Karymsky Lake in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula created a toxic chemical soup in the formerly pristine lake.
The eruption decimated the lake's ecosystem, killing off thousands of fish and trees.
The Kamchatka Peninsula is home to scores of steep-sided volcanoes, which line up like sentries along its eastern coast. Karymsky volcano is the most active volcano in Kamchatka.
Around midnight on Jan. 2, 1996, one day after a powerful earthquake, Karymsky volcano exploded, spewing ash and lava high into the air.
Later that afternoon, the lake followed, with a strong underwater eruption.
Eruptive pulses from the lake ejected columns of steam and ash into the air every five or six minutes for about 18 hours.
There was around 30 (million) to 40 million tons of pyroclastic material and juvenile material erupted into the air, and this material was saturated with acidic fluids.
Much of the ejected material collapsed back into the lake, stewing into a fetid mix of sodium, sulfate, calcium and magnesium.
When scientists reached the lake, they discovered the pH had dropped from 7.5 to 3.2, in the range of grapefruit juice and vinegar, and the water's color was yellow-brown.
When scientists reached the lake, they discovered the pH had dropped from 7.5 to 3.2, in the range of grapefruit juice and vinegar, and the water's color was yellow-brown.
Read more - http://www.livescience.com/40414-volcano-erupts-acid-lake-karymsky.html
More articles on volcanoes on this blog - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Volcanoes
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