I have recently been captured by my archenemy Baron VonGool, and am writing from my cell on the secret computer hidden in my utility belt. VonGool has told me that he will soon be preparing to lower my sweetheart, Flora Bunnylove, feet first into a pool of molten lava unless I give him the password to launch America’s entire nuclear arsenal. As you can see, I am conflicted. And while I am sure I will find some last-minute strategem to once again foil that dratted VonGool, I am curious:
What will happen to Flora if she is lowered into the lava just a little bit? Will the feet and ankles be burned off, or will they still be there, and just burned horribly? If the latter, what will happen if she can be quickly extricated? When the rock cools, could it be chipped away from her feet? What would happen if she was standing there as lava crept up around her? Could she stand there as her feet were burned away, or would she slowly melt from the bottom up? How much of her body could be theoretically be covered in lava and still have her survive? Let’s say for instance, I wanted Flora to suffer just a little bit for all those winks I keep seeing her exchange with my sidekick, Amazing Boy (the little bastard), and I let a little glob of the boiling rock drop onto her; what then?
Thanks for the help. Any other insights on lava-related torture are always appreciated.
Yours for Honesty, Fairness, and the American Dream,*
Captain Amazing
This is the official, original slogan of Captain Amazing. All rights reserved. Any similarity to the slogans of other superheroes, living or dead, is unintentional, and you can’t prove otherwise in any court anywhere so don’t even try.
Just beinig near molten lava is enough to kill you; I remember seeing a documentary where some researchers needed to collect a sample of lava that was flowing in a natural lava tube; there was a hole in the roof of the tube across which they threw a log, they were able to sling their sample collecting scoop/cable over the log and lower it directly into the stream of molten rock.
The point is that none of them could approach the aperture because of the radiated heat which caused the log to ignite as soon as it was thrown across the aperture.
A person being slowly lowered into a pool of molten lava would be dead and half cooked before their toes touched it.
Per your suggestions, Baron VonGool has agreed to give Flora a gas mask, and rather than lower her slowly, he will only give her “a quick dip” in the lava.
She’s going to have horrible burns all over her body, not just on her feet. Even if she never touches the lava, the radiated heat’s going to be enough to bake her.
Also, remember that lava even when molten still has the density of rock. Flora could just about stand on the lava; so submersion isn’t something that will happen unless she’s in contact with it for a while.
It may have the density of rock, but it doesn’t have the structural properties; flora will sink into the surface, displacing a volume of molten rock equivalent to her own bodyweight; I would estimate that this would be at least knee-depth.
So that scene in the movie Volcano where the guy jumps off a train and into some lava - and subsequently melts like the witch in The Wizard of Oz - is bunk? Hmph. Just one more reason why that movie sucked sour frog ass…
Captain Amazing was also Greg Kinnear’s character in Mystery Men (1999). Now, maybe I’m not reading these posts closely enough, but what exactly was wrong with that scene from Volcano? If I recall, that wasn’t a pool of lava, but rather just a puddle.
Yeah, you’re probably right - a puddle will ignite someone just as easily as a pool. I just missed the part where someone said that a pool of lava will ignite someone standing in it. So, I’m with you, but that was still a really cool scene!
