Can You Survive If You Get Into The Lava Of A Volcano? - Alternative View

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Can You Survive If You Get Into The Lava Of A Volcano? - Alternative View
Can You Survive If You Get Into The Lava Of A Volcano? - Alternative View

Video: Can You Survive If You Get Into The Lava Of A Volcano? - Alternative View

Video: Can You Survive If You Get Into The Lava Of A Volcano? - Alternative View
Video: Would You Survive If You Fell into a Volcano 2024, March
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There is no controversy about the strangest volcano in the world. Tanzania has become the home of the "Mountain of God". This is how the volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai is called in the local Masai dialect. Once his lava swallowed a person, but the lucky man managed to survive. This is because the temperature of the erupting rocks never exceeds 510 degrees Celsius. This is significantly lower than the generally accepted minimum for basaltic lava (1000 degrees). That is why the youngest giant in the Virunga chain is almost always black, because the temperature of igneous rocks is not enough to make it red.

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What are the odds of survival?

The incident happened in 2007. One of the archaeological expeditions was attended by a resident of the Masai tribe, moonlighting as a porter. Inadvertently, during the transition, the man fell into one of the active lava flows in the crater. He managed to get out, although his hands and feet were badly burned. The victim was hospitalized, and now he can bear the title of the only person in the world who fell into lava and survived. In fact, this story could have ended more badly if not for the unique structure of the erupting rocks.

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Strange flows

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The cold lava of the volcano has a unique viscosity, which became such due to the absence of silica molecular chains. These strange streams resemble dirty water. When they erupt, they create a semblance of meandering rivers that flow down the slopes with ease.

Most volcanic currents flow across flat plateaus at speeds no more than 10 kilometers per hour. This means that especially nimble people, under certain conditions, have a chance to escape. Lava Ol Doinyo Lengai easily outstrips the pace of a person's running. Therefore, archaeologists and locals should be grateful to nature for the fact that the giant does not erupt so often.

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Carbonate lava

Volcanologists sometimes joke about the extraterrestrial origin of this amazing object, located just 160 kilometers from Mount Kilimanjaro. In most other volcanoes, the eruption throws out basaltic lava. The rocks of the object do not contain silicon dioxide and oxygen, but they contain alkaline elements - calcium and sodium. This specific lava is so rich in sodium that it can be safely called sodium carbonate. Also in it you can find potassium in a liquid state.

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The melting points of all these molecular chains are much lower than that of silicate-type igneous rocks. In sunlight, the streams appear black, and moisture from the atmosphere very quickly penetrates into the products of volcanic activity. A few hours are enough for the streams to turn almost white. And six months later, instead of lava, sand remains at the site of the eruption.

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The point where Africa is tearing itself apart

The volcano is located in the very place where the continent is tearing itself apart. It is far from the only one - the Great African Rift has a fault with a length of more than 6,000 kilometers. About a third of the world's carbonate volcanoes are located on the East African Plateau.

Expeditions in this region are difficult due to climatic conditions. Until now, scientists cannot understand why the lava of the strangest volcano in the world has such a combination of chemical elements. However, it contains a large amount of rare earth elements that are widely used in modern electronics.

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Harmless giant

According to volcanologists, Ol Doinyo Lengai is harmless. The last eruption took place in 2008, and it did not cause much trouble for local residents. It has existed for 370,000 years and is of great value to archaeologists. Just imagine how many ancient people and evolutionary ancestors wandered around this amazing object. Whenever a new eruption occurred, volcanic ash burst outward and littered the landscape. However, the hominid footprints have been reliably preserved by the unique texture of the lava. Some of them have survived to this day.

Inga Kaisina