hazards from volcanic eruptions are pyroclastic at speeds like a jetliner. man: [speaking spanish] jess phoenix: it will obliterate trees. it will take out people. it can even reshape the geology of the area. nobody can outrun a pyroclastic flow. if you are faced with one, you are dead. welcome to violent earth. i m liev schreiber. more than 80% of the earth s surface was forged by volcanoes. they helped create fertile soil for agriculture, and volcanic gases helped form our atmosphere. without volcanoes, we would not have life on earth as we know it. all around the world, every single day, there are 40 to 50 volcanoes erupting under sea, on land, sometimes even under ice. our earth is a living, changing planet. but when a volcano erupts, it also has the power to destroy, like it did in 2018 at mount fuego in guatemala, when a massive eruption buried the surrounding towns in over 6 feet of volcanic ash in a matter of minutes. [music playing] george kourounis: mount fuego in g
major hazards? from volcanic eruptions are pyroclastic flows the rock fragments, and gases are moving at speeds like a jetliner it will it can even reshape the geology of the area. nobody can outrun a pyroclastic flow. if you are faced with one, you are dead. welcome to violent earth. i m liev schreiber. more than 80% of the earth s surface was forged by volcanoes. they helped create fertile soil for agriculture, and volcanic gases helped form our atmosphere. without volcanoes, we would not have life on earth as we know it. all around the world, every single day, there are 40 to 50 volcanoes erupting under sea, on land, sometimes even under ice. our earth is a living, changing planet. but when a volcano erupts, it also has the power to destroy, like it did in 2018 at mount fuego in guatemala, when a massive eruption buried the surrounding towns in over 6 feet of volcanic ash in a matter of minutes. [music playing] george kourounis: mount fuego in guatemala is your stereotyp
The 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington State illustrated the hazards and impacts of ground-hugging volcanic blasts on natural landscapes and human infrastructure.
rapidly speeds that unfortunately are nearly impossible to outrun you. mix that with moisture especially if we get rain in the forecast that is expected to be there, that can trigger lahars which are basically just mutt slides caused by the actual volcano. when we talk about the ash in the heir and the implications it has for air travel, because we already know we ve had numerous cancellations of flights. ash goes up. remember, it s incredibly hot temperatures. it s pulverized rocks and they get pulled into the engines. they melt in the engines, and oftentimes melting the components of the engine. but here is the thing. as they rise, they cool rapidly. that causes them to solidify. so you re basically having rocks thrown at the engine parts. and that can cause severe problems as well. also, in terms of that, you have to keep in mind that the wind direction can take that ash anywhere it wants to go. that s why you have a wide area where they blocked flights from
into the atmosphere, a good 10 kilometers that is an indication of quite an explosive eruption there and the soot, just heartbreaking to see folks running around, unlike kilauea, right, full of soot. and those are the lucky ones that were able to get out of the way. but the forecast i m concerned about a bit because if we get rain on top of that ash, we can create are called lahars which are slower moving and less deadly, but they re mud flows nevertheless, and there are still villages that would be impacted here. we re in that season in guatemala. we re getting the pop-up thunderstorms, tropical rains through the afternoon that will the case as we head through monday, tuesday and into wednesday, although this event, this is still an ongoing search and rescue here, and hopefully we ll find it and more folks down there in guatemala. absolutely. a terrifying situation for those people. ivan cabrera, thanks so much. we ll join you again next hour. and of course ivan mentioned there, the