Geological Movie Review of Dante's Peak - Part 8

Dante's Peak - Overview

- Some questions asked (and hopefully answered) above -

• Which volcano and eruption is depicted in the first sequence of the movie?.
• Are mud rain and lava bombs typical of large scale eruptions and what are they anyway?
• Do eruptions happen in hot springs before surrounding areas and what is the result of an eruption in a spring?
• Are acidic lakes common in volcanically active areas and how acidic is normal?
• Do trees get killed off near an active volcano in real life?
• What is ELF and what does it stand for?
• What are microquakes and are 25-75 really a common occurrence?
• What is the size of the eruption that is associated with a particular earthquake?
• How acidic is it possible for a lake to get and is this strong enough to melt a metal boat?
• What is a lahar?

- Overview (or important thoughts to take home) -

• This is one of the most scientifically accurate geology movies out there
• The most likely eruption at the beginning of the movie is the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz placing the remaining events of the movie in 1989
• This conflicts with his mentioning of Mount Pinatubo which erupted in 1991
• The Cascadian Range has lots of volcanoes that can produce this type of eruption
• Signs of an impending eruption: Increased amount of gas released, increased earthquakes especially harmonic tremors, lava dome growth and increase is acidity of local water sources (lakes, hot springs, etc.)
• Predicting actual eruptions is hard
• The Dante's Peak eruption would not have produced that kind of lava flow
• An aluminum boat would melt in an acidic volcanic lake but so would the fish and the entire motor rather quickly
• My personal opinion places the lahar on the first day of eruption since most of the ice and snow should already have melted
• The pyroclastic cloud occurred almost exactly as it would in real life, showing that it is the most dangerous part of a volcanic eruption
• ELF is a fabrication of the movie because any real-life ELF transmitters have at least a 10km long antenna

- Non-Geological Notes -

• In all that ash why are none of the people wearing anything over their mouths? You would think that would be the first thing you did.
• So why doesn't Grandma wait until she is 3 feet from shore to jump into the lake when it truly was not necessary. Oh wait, she did.
• Driving on a fresh lava flow? Other than fun, the truck would probably blow up before you even got 1/2 way across.