Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogo bam here with a classic episode from the podcast archives. Hurricanes and volcanoes are two of the most fear inspiring and all inspiring natural disasters that we humans contend with. In this classic, we talk about what happens when they team up. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogle bam here. It seems like a scenario tailor made for a cheesy disaster film, the next big thing on Netflix, or a soon to be sci Fi network classic. A rumbling volcano on a remote tropical island, a monsters hurricane barreling relentlessly towards it, lava, lightning, stinging rain, flooding, man eating sharks dropping out of the sky. It strike
that last part. This isn't Sharknado, but the odd coupling of active volcano and hurricane still can be pretty cool and scary, and it's very real When hurricane meets a volcano, and it happens probably more often than you think, some strange and wondrous sparks begin to fly. How big those sometimes literal sparks become depends on a few key factors, of course, including the strength of the hurricane, how active
the volcano is, and the topography surrounding the volcano. Because of those variables, it's almost impossible to accurately predict what will happen when a big storm settles over a big volcano, but lightning, lava, rain, and winds are all possibilities. We spoke with Stephen Bustinger, a professor in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Hawaii, who admits we always
get excited when a hurricane comes by. In Hawaii. The volcano Kilauea on the Island of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island, has been actively spouting off since n It's latest stretch, which began in mid May, has sputed lava from the volcano, destroying seven hundred houses and adding more than eight hundred and fifty acres that's about three and forty three hectors of new land to the Big Island.
But in August, researchers from the U S Geological Survey said activity from Kilauea's fission number eight, the largest and most active, has decreased to only a glow. It's not just the lava that makes volcanoes dangerous, though, volcanoes shoot vast amounts of ash into the sky that can contribute to a lot of rain and flooding. Oregon State University's Volcano World website explains that the ash thrown into the atmosphere can attract and collect water droplets, creating more rain
and lightning in the immediate area. When a tropical cyclone or hurricane heavy with rain and strong winds is added to that already volatile volcanic weather mix, things can become even dicier. Bussenger said, its circulation is more vigorous. People can be killed by the heavy winds that result or the lightning that results. Bussenger has a PhD in atmospheric sciences and has been tracking storms, including ones that interact with volcanoes, at the University of Hawaii for some five years.
Here's a historical example. Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew its top the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century, when Typhoon Unia brought heavy rains just as the volcano was erupting. The volcanic ashen rock that Pinatubo coughed up was washed down the volcano slopes and flows known as lahars over the next four years. Those lahars, originally prompted by Yunia and later egged on by other storms and rainy seasons, eventually caused more damage than the eruption itself.
After observing tropical storm Flossy roll over Kilauea, in Bussenger and colleague Andre patent Hius measured something else, a marked increase in lightning. They explained it in a paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in quote, in the clean atmosphere, you have large droplets form around few particles, and those large droplets tend to fall out before these large droplets have a chance to get up into the upper atmosphere
where freezing takes place. It's freezing that's required for electrification. When you have pollution from a volcano that's producing lots of condensation particles, a cloud condensation nuclei we call it, then you get many droplets. Those smaller droplets don't rain out, and they're more easily lofted above the freezing level, and
then you do get charge separation electrification. By early August, just before Hurricane Hector swung near the southern side of the Big Island, seven tropical cyclones had already made landfall across the Hawaiian Islands since Kilauea began as the latest run of eruptions, the three most recent according to the Weather Channel, where Flossy in, Hurricane Zel and Hurricane Darby in. With Kilauea showing few signs of abating, Hawaii may be
facing several more chances at hurricane versus volcano meetings. But even if a tropical storm doesn't directly strike the big island, even if it doesn't make landfall and glide over Kilauea, even if the rains and lightning are somehow held to a minimum, can still stir things up around Hawaii. Some of those byproducts, given the alternative, might even be welcome there.
The heavy moist air of a hurricane can help clean the air of the bigger ash particles from a volcanic eruption, and a good windy storm is always welcome by some types in the islands. Passenger said, it's going to kick up some holacious surf. Today's episode is based on the article Battle Epic When Hurricanes Clash with Volcanoes on how
Stuff works dot com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff works dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.