Journey Into an Active Volcano | One Strange Rock

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

Ken Sims doesn't do nine-to-five. This is his idea of a good day at the office. For over 20 years, he's ventured into active volcanoes across the globe to collect samples of molten lava. Studying this stuff is one of the best ways to understand what's happening in the center of the Earth and the process that protects us from the Sun.

Pretty much that whole bottom terrace now is completely covered in brand-new lava flows. Yeah, with the new lava flow coming around against the wall there, we'll have to watch out. The lava is intensely hot, roughly 2,000 degrees. It will burn pretty much anything on contact.

"Okay, heading over. I'll go over just towards the edge here; we'll have a look."

"Whoa, holy! It's just opened up on that side, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, totally. Whoa! Now can I’m pretty certain that there is absolutely no way we are going down there. That is without doubt mission impossible."

"Okay, well, they're wrong. Cancel admission. Just anybody with half a brain wouldn't go down there."

The new vent means Ken can't take samples from the lake, but he doesn't need to. The vent is firing fresh lava right at it. "There's a lot of lava bombs around here; it's just covered with bombs."

"Wow! I can see the vent from here. It's really rocking and rolling." [Music]

Current direction | Electrical engineering | Khan Academy

10 Things I'm Not Buying in 2021 (Tips for Saving Money)

View All

How Much Is A Bird in The Hand Worth?

Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. And as they say, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” What it means is that it’s better to have a certain advantage than to have nothing, except the possibility of a greater one. But two birds in the bush? Who calcula…

Welcome to high school biology | High school biology | Khan Academy

It’s very easy to take for granted some of the very amazing things that surround us. In particular, the notion of life on a day-to-day basis — we’re used to it. We are living things; we see living things all around us, and we get preoccupied with other th…

How AirBnb will Crash the Housing Market

Here’s how Airbnb could crash the U.S. housing market. There are over 1 million properties listed on Airbnb here in the United States. In recent years, there’s been a huge trend of small investors buying single-family houses to then list on short-term re…

Affect and effect | Frequently confused words | Usage | Grammar

Hello Garian, today we’re going to talk about two of my, well, I don’t know if I’d call them favorite, but two of my most frequently confused words. I make this mistake all the time, you know, and I think it’s important to keep it straight. So, affect and…

It’s Over: China’s Economy Is Finally Collapsing

China’s economy is in trouble, and fears the country is quote “a ticking Time Bomb.” The debt super cycle that came from the U.S. and Europe after the 2008 financial crisis could be knocking on China’s door. They said that it is over. “What’s up, Graham?…

Quantitative electrolysis | Applications of thermodynamics | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy

We already know that in an electrolytic cell, current or movement of electrons is used to drive a redox reaction. If we look at a generic reduction half-reaction, the stoichiometry of the half-reaction shows how many electrons are needed to reduce a gener…

Journey Into an Active Volcano | One Strange Rock

More Articles