Only Virgins Need Apply
June 27, 2012 2:35 PM   Subscribe

 
The test was performed with a box of camp waste (largely food rests) in a bin bag.

Who designed this experiment, Kang and Kodos?
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:38 PM on June 27, 2012




This is like that bit on Letterman where they asked people what they wanted to see thrown off a five story tower, isn't it.

OK, I'll play their game - a 10 lb. block of ice!
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 2:42 PM on June 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


That wouldn't have happened if that garbage was still a virgin.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 2:57 PM on June 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


Later, Pinatubo.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:05 PM on June 27, 2012



This is like that bit on Letterman where they asked people what they wanted to see thrown off a five story tower, isn't it.

OK, I'll play their game - a 10 lb. block of ice!


All my enemies!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:10 PM on June 27, 2012


Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan!
posted by shakespeherian at 3:13 PM on June 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


But first: Kiki!
posted by hal9k at 3:23 PM on June 27, 2012


Don't taunt the Gods...

DEAD GUY:
What were the odds that I'd get hit by lightning just as I renounced all gods...?

DEATH:
About one to one, I'd say. You're not the first. Although I think you're the first to do it from the top of their own temple. Full marks for style.
posted by ceribus peribus at 3:25 PM on June 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


OH NOES GOLLUM THAT WUZ HARD LAVA
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:32 PM on June 27, 2012


As volcanos go, I'd hardly call that a violent eruption. And anyone who has gotten a little water in a deep fat fryer is familiar with what this video depicts.
posted by crunchland at 3:49 PM on June 27, 2012


I love that the photography site linked to at the end of the video http://photovolcanica.com/ sells pictures of two things: volcanos and penguins. This guy must have the most awesome life ever, at least the top ten.
posted by thebestsophist at 4:00 PM on June 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


"The test was performed with a box of camp waste (largely food rests) baking soda and vinegar in a bin bag."

FIXED THAT FOR SCIENCE!!!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:24 PM on June 27, 2012


That was cool and terrifying at the same time. Perhaps the garbage had something that produced steam in it for the lava to react like that?

People get so dumb around volcanoes, even scientists.
posted by nickyskye at 4:35 PM on June 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


For a video titled "Eruption after person falls in a volcanoes [sic] lava lake," I must say that was incredibly underwhelming.
posted by pecanpies at 4:54 PM on June 27, 2012


Incineration of waste in Erta Ale Volcanoes lava lake. It is frequently discussed whether it is possible to sink in lava. Due to its high density, a person would generally be expected to remain on the surface. Indeed it is possible to briefly walk on certain types of lava if professional heat-protective clothing is worn (do not try yourself). However, the video shows that falling from a height, a person would be able to penetrate the crust of the lake and submerge in it. The test was performed with a box of camp waste (largely food rests) in a bin bag. Estimated weight 30kg, Size 60x60x60cm. Fall height, about 80m. The lake reacts with violent lava fountaining activity, presumably in part due to steam produced from the organic matter.

The lava lake at Erta Ale has persisted for many years and contains relatively fluid basaltic lava. Only few volcanoes have such lakes
From the YT description.
posted by rosswald at 5:43 PM on June 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


What the heck are "food rests?"
posted by crunchland at 5:47 PM on June 27, 2012 [2 favorites]


Wow, that's neat. Obviously it wasn't in the end, but it really looks like a chain reaction starting. If I saw that I would be pegging it down the mountainside.
posted by lucidium at 5:48 PM on June 27, 2012


What the heck are "food rests?"

You know the food you eat?

Well, this is the rest.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:50 PM on June 27, 2012 [3 favorites]


Ah. Leftovers.
posted by crunchland at 5:56 PM on June 27, 2012


Pretty cool way to get rid of garbage if you ask me. If I lived near there I'd be throwing shit in it all the time. Like my 2000 Plymouth Neon.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:56 PM on June 27, 2012


crunchland: "Leftovers"

also known as eatie-treaties-meats-and-sweeties
posted by boo_radley at 7:06 PM on June 27, 2012


OK. We'll need a couple of truckloads of assorted large melons, gourds, pumpkins and squash. Maybe a couple of whole hogs or turkeys or something. And a lot of water balloons. Oh, and don't forget the propane canisters.

And then we're probably going to need some stuff for a picnic while we throw all of the above into the lava lake.

I wish they kept the video going longer, but maybe they decided to get the hell out of there and not find out first hand how active the pool was going to get before it settled back down.

I was reading about Erta Ale at the videographer's site and they go into a bit of detail about the mechanics of lava lakes, which are very dynamic, high energy and unpredictable.

Stable lava lakes are rare because they're not really stable like a lake of water. Lava lakes are the surface of a lava column or lava tube. For the lake to remain liquid and "stable" it needs a large quantity of heat input where the crust regularly breaks and sinks or perhaps forms a semi-molten skin.

So, yeah, introducing even just a few kilos of steam and organic matter into that could probably add a lot of turbulence and activity to such a system.

If you managed to drop a few hundred tons of water in a single mass - say, in a large steel tank - and then drop it from height to get it to sink or penetrate into the lava pool it would likely be inadvisedly spectacular.

The initial steam explosion alone would be huge, but the destabilization of the lava column and/or magma chamber below could be a whole lot of ongoing fireworks for an unexpectedly long time.

Fascinating.

But, no, seriously. I want to toss watermelons in that thing.

And some giant pumpkins. A brick of good fire crackers. Propane tanks. Maybe a few barrels of Jet A or kerosene. Full oxygen tanks, buckets of magnesium turnings, white phosphorus, an entire running and cooled MRI machine, a fire-fighting 747 dumping a full load of powdered coffee creamer overhead, surplus solid booster segments from the Shuttle, an entire fueled Saturn V...

What?
posted by loquacious at 7:43 PM on June 27, 2012 [14 favorites]


The lava just looks so HAPPY to have something to munch on!

Admittedly, I may have an anthropomorphizing problem.
posted by argonauta at 8:05 PM on June 27, 2012 [1 favorite]


That was very satisfying, thanks.
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:09 PM on June 27, 2012


Those of you who haven't watched both videos from nickyskye's comment ought to go fix that. They are astonishing and stressful.
posted by Songdog at 9:14 PM on June 27, 2012


Ditto. The scientist one... Agh!
posted by ocherdraco at 9:42 PM on June 27, 2012


So what happens on this open lava lake when it rains?
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:52 PM on June 27, 2012


People get so dumb around volcanoes

Yikes, I expected to look at the description under that video and read something like "video found on a memory card extracted from melted camera under pile of unrecognizably charred corpses". Eesh.
posted by hattifattener at 10:01 PM on June 27, 2012


"Erta Ale" sounds perhaps Swedish to this ear, and several of the YouTube comments were in Japanese and Arabic. I have chosen not to figure out where this volcano is, the mystery is more fun.
posted by eurypteris at 3:00 AM on June 28, 2012


And I have seen similar geographic names in Italy, and I checked, and my guess was wrong.
posted by hat_eater at 3:51 AM on June 28, 2012


I'd like to see controls done with rocks of the same a) mass and b) cross-sectional area.
posted by DU at 4:19 AM on June 28, 2012


...inadvisedly spectacular.
Thanks for that phrase!
posted by MtDewd at 6:08 AM on June 28, 2012


Throw a 2L of Diet Pepsi in there and it'd go all Krakatoa.
posted by jimmythefish at 7:02 AM on June 28, 2012


Or maybe Diet Coke and Mentos.
posted by crunchland at 3:20 PM on June 28, 2012


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