Dante's Peak Discussion Questions

1078 Words3 Pages

Leora Sanders
Dante’s Peak Questions:

General questions about volcanoes and volcanologists:
How many active volcanoes are there on Earth?
There are 1500 potentially active volcanoes worldwide.
How many active volcanoes are the in the United States?
There are approximately 169 active volcanoes in the United States.
Is it possible to predict an eruption’s time, place and character?
Yes, by examining a volcano's history, how long since its last eruption and its time span between its previous eruptions. We can also look to smaller earthquakes which indicate that magma is moving underground. Some other factors include slope deformation of a volcano and an increase in gas emissions.

Movie fact of fiction:
Is the eruption depicted in Dante’s Peak …show more content…

The volcanic eruptions at stratovolcanoes, in the Cascade Range, are explosive and produce pyroclastic flow and clouds of volcanic ash, which the movie does show realistically. However, the lava flow in the movie is very fluid when in reality the lava flow at stratovolcanoes is viscous and therefore slow moving.
Can eruptions really threaten helicopters, as in the movie and other aircraft?
Yes, helicopters and other aircraft can be damaged by volcanic ash. When aircraft accidentally encounter volcanic ash clouds, jet engines can temporarily lose power. In the movie, people were climbing into the helicopter in hopes of escaping, however; the aircraft caught on fire and exploded.
Can a town’s water supply become contaminated when a volcano is restless?
Yes, the water supply could be contaminated if a town’s water supply directly originates from a volcano’s groundwater system or if the water supply comes from a stream that has been covered in volcanic ash. In the movie, when the mayor tried to get water from the sink, the water was brown, so they went to check on the town’s water supply and found lots of sulfur in the water.

Questions about eruption precursors:
What kind of unusual activity might be noticed before an

More about Dante's Peak Discussion Questions

Open Document