I happened to see a really ditzy sniipet of a movie five muntes ago. I think its from “Volcano”.
There’s a construction worker guy and he’s carrying a driver off the melting subway (from the volcano erupting in the tunnels). Now, he gets to the end of the car, using a really stupid overhand carry rather than dragging. Then, instead of hopping off immediately and moving forward to get out of the lava thats rising into the tunnel, he stands there looking dramatic. While the lava cuts him off. Then he jumps into the puddle of lava and tosses the guy… and melts away into the lava.
We’re just asuming there are no choking fumes.
I believe lava exposure doesn’t cause your body to melt in seconds. Flesh and bone != wax.
Can we probably expect 3rd degree burns, possibly losing the feet?
Caught the same snippet last night and was also wondering about it. But I was more concerned that the guy managed to stay vertical as his legs are dissolving beneath him. I’m pretty sure he’d have pitched forward into it from the getgo.
That said, magma’s melted ROCK so I dont see why melting flesh would be out of the realm of possibility.
Oh, it would get you eventually, but I think it would take more time. The guy would pitch forward and some of his buddies would grab him and drag him out. Nasty burns and need some skin trans and reconstructive surgery.
Of course, if he’d just pulled the guy along the floor he’d have made it before the lava anyway.
It mentions two geologists who fell into lava and survived. So your intuition was right and he wouldn’t have melted. At least not instantly. Good to know.
I don’t know about lava, but when it comes to the molton slag an INCO employee in Sudbury slipped into about fifteen years ago or so, his legs vaporized so quickly that it blew him back out. It was touch an go, but he lived. (Sorry, no cites on this one. It was described to me by one of the EMTs on the scene, and of course was reported in the media in the city at the time.)
Here near Gary, IN where just able everyone seems to have worked in the steel mills at one time or another, or been related to someone who did, there are several stories of folks having accidents at work. Yes, molten steel does have the ability to vaporize the human body.
Flesh will not melt. If it’s hot enough, it will vapourize. Otherwise, it will burn away. First the flesh will dry out, then burn, eventually turning to ash. The cartilage will follow, and lastly, the bone will eventually follow suit.
No melting though. The scene is screwy. Not a bad moive, though. To much pointless needless symbolic heroics.
Actually, it’s possible to melt the subcutaneous fat under human skin, leading to the skin sloughing off, “degloving”, and otherwise peeling off in huge chunks. However, the circumstances that cause this also lead to massive tissue above and below the fat level. Those levels won’t melt, but they will char and burn.
‘Precious, precious, precious!’ Gollum cried. ‘My Precious! O my Precious!’ And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink and then with a shriek he fell. Out of the depths came his last wail Precious, and he was gone.