apparently , an erupting volcano can kill you in several lineal way — typically via heat and/or explosive military unit . But there are some rare and eldritch ways to snuff it near a vent . Did you know that a volcano can make your head explode ? Or melt down your face with hydrochloric Zen ?
Here are 10 all insane ways to croak via vent .
1 ) Poisonous gas . Two mass were kill near Mount Kilauea in 2000 , their lungs swollen and their pelt eaten away by hydrochloric acid . gushing volcanoes , which may seem safe due to the easygoing way lava flows out of them down to the sea , create some of the pernicious volcanic hazard ( maybe because they lull people into a assumed sense of security ) . When lava reaches the ocean , the chloride in the sea salt and the hydrogen in the water system react and form hydrochloric acid . As the water flashes into steam , it carries a cloud of acid with it . Sudden shifts in the wind can unexpectedly campaign this cloud directly onto unwary onlookers . This toxic cloud , by the way , is known as lava haze , or laze .

2 ) Flying shrapnel . When lava see the sea , the lava is cooled very quickly . The cooling contracts the lava , and the sudden stresses can make chunks of it to be flung into the air . These lump , call tephra , can fly quite far , be amazingly large — and do a meaning amount of damage if they hit you .
3 ) Falling into blister saltwater . Where lava flows into the sea , the body of water gets reasonably red-hot . The temperature of lava is over 2,000 degrees F. The cooled lava forms shards and lumps , piled unevenly along the shoring . young lava flows over this , forming a seemingly self-colored top layer . Unfortunately , this whole organization , known as a lava bench , is very unstable . When it collapses , anyone standing on top of it will likely fall into scalding hot sea water .
4 ) Downhill bike rides . It seems like a somewhat fun idea – take a motorcoach up to the flange of a volcano , then ride a bike down a paved route back to the bottom . Roaring downhill on a bike with a volcano as the backcloth sounds awing , but it ’s also really grievous . holidaymaker who did this ( few of whom were experience wheeler ) pass over out , crashed into rock and roll , or locomote into oncoming traffic when this practice was allowed . The problem get so bad that after multiple stroke and fatalities the National Park Service banned commercial-grade motorcycle go in Haleakala National Park .

5 ) Exploding your head . What ’s inside your skull ? Your brain . What ’s your brain full of ? piss . What happens to water when you in a flash superheat it ? It turn to steam . What happens to a book of piddle when it turn to steam clean ? It expand . Rapidly . Violently . So when a pyroclastic menses , a stream of gas and particulate than can reach temperatures above 1,000 degrees F , covers your townsfolk , it ’s going to look a lot like outtakes from Scanners . Which is exactly what happened to the residents of Herculaneum in 79 CE .
6 ) Scalding moving ridge . retrieve those collapsing lava benches ? Well , you do n’t in reality have to be on the bench when it collapses to die . If you ’re nearby , you might be deluged by the scalding red-hot wave that the collapse kick up .
7 ) Vog . All the noxious gases and particulate matter affair kicked into the aviation by volcanoes can mix together and make volcanic smog , or vog . Vog does n’t defeat you the right way away , but inhale particulates and sulfur fume over the long full term can cause lung problem and make things very rough on the great unwashed with asthma attack and other pre - existent conditions . Worse , particulates in the air expand other befoulment problem , increasing acid rain and further exacerbating respiratory problem .

- Falling into a lava tube . Those effusive volcano are actual bastards . At least with volatile volcanoes you know what you ’re in for . Effusive volcanoes send lava to the ocean via lava tube . The surface layer chill and hardens while lava course at a lower place . That airfoil can be slender and mentally ill . What looks like a safe position to walk on can quickly check capable to the lava below , create what ’s known as a skylight . Falling into lava , that would be regretful . But even if the tube is dormant , you ’re still fall a good aloofness onto rock-and-roll . A woman once break both legs fall into a lava tube-shaped structure at Kilauea National Park .
9 ) Suffocation . One of the most subtle elbow room a vent can kill is also the most devastating . Under certain conditions , volcanic activity at the bottom of a deep lake can infuse the lake with a huge amount of CO2 . Cold lakes often have stratified temperature stratum . Tremors or other factors can make the lake to “ turn over . ” This release the CO2 very suddenly . Because it is exceedingly cold and obtuse , it can flow down geographic features , embrace the ground . Anyone caught in the cloud will witness themselves with no oxygen to breathe . In 1986 this exact scenario played out at Lake Nyos in Cameroon . A three-dimensional kilometer of CO2 was discharge . It flowed into a nearby village and killed more than 1,700 multitude .
10 ) Tephra honey oil . If you only take one thing aside from this clause , it ’s this : ride out the blaze away from lava benches . Because even if a collapsing terrace does n’t drop you into scald ocean piddle , douse you with scalding waves , or open a hole into an active lava tube , it might just send a scald hot geyser of steam , liberally transfix with tiny globules of fiery lava and with child , glassy ball of tephra burst up in your face .

Sources :
PBS . “ Casefile : Herculaneum Uncovered . ”
Pratt , Sara E. “ Danger in heaven : The secret jeopardy of vent geotourism . ”Earth , March 19 , 2012 .

U.S. Geological Survey . “ Viewing Lava Safely – Common Sense is Not Enough . ”
U.S. Geological Survey . “ Volcanic Lakes and Gas Releases . ”
Images : U.S. Geological Survey .

GeologyScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like








![]()
