Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Lava Lake Eruption

The idea was to test what would happen if a person fell into a lava lake, the test packet being organic waste.  I'm not sure this is an apt parallel, though.  A hog carcass would more precisely emulate a human one.  Organic waste may have contained more flammable materials.  But hey, it's a great video.
Tags: networking, science, video
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  • 7 comments
technoshaman

technoshaman

May 15 2014, 22:13:47 UTC 7 years ago

I wasn't seeing so much flame as steam... Yeah, there was some flame right at the beginning, but the real horsepower in that kaboom was the fact that if you take liquid water at somewhere around 280K (outdoors temp) and suddenly raise it to 1400K (a pool of lava) it's going to want to expand by *2500 times*... which is a *tremendous* amount of energy, more than enough to give poor Pele a very upset tummy....
ysabetwordsmith

Okay...

ysabetwordsmith

May 15 2014, 22:17:54 UTC 7 years ago

Excellent point! So a human body, which is about 95% water, should deliver a similar effect. Thank you! I now have a credible reference in case I need to fling a character into a lava lake. Or one of my fans does. ;)
tomtac

Re: Okay...

tomtac

May 16 2014, 15:25:31 UTC 7 years ago

Maybe I will ask the Lava person to try flinging a dead animal in to see.

One sad (for me) point . . . I always liked the early chapter of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicle in which he described how the Martians would cook their meals: by dipping the food into molten lava. Does this video mean that method is not possible? That dipping a pork chop into liquid rock would generate an explosive fireball?
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Okay...

ysabetwordsmith

May 16 2014, 19:29:45 UTC 7 years ago

Well, it might depend on the food. Martian food could be different. But Earth food would probably all explode. I suppose you could cook by lowering food near the surface of lava, but then you'd have the same problem with any other very high heat: the outside would burn before the inside could cook.

Of course, there are people who like their steak that way.
siliconshaman

siliconshaman

May 16 2014, 11:16:33 UTC 7 years ago

Actually, I think at those temperatures water disassociates into hydrogen and oxygen...which would recombine violently as soon as it jetted into the air and cooled. Although, now that I think of it, a HHO flame isn't all that visible. So, you probably saw the carbon burning at first, and then a mix of live steam jet with a hydrogen flare.
ysabetwordsmith

Wow!

ysabetwordsmith

May 16 2014, 19:10:46 UTC 7 years ago

Fascinating. Thank you for sharing.
cmcmck

cmcmck

May 16 2014, 07:09:08 UTC 7 years ago

Fish and chips?