How would you stop a lava flow?

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How would you stop a lava flow?

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The ocean is the only thing that’s going to slow it down.

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Perhaps one of the most successful attempts to divert lava was seen in 1973 in an Icelandic town called Vestmannaeyjar. Flowing lava from the Eldfell volcano was met with more than 1 billion gallons of icy sea water blasted through cannons. When the water hit the molten rock, it turned the fire into steam, which allowed the heat to escape. It took months to stop the lava flow, but the effort ultimately saved the archipelago’s only harbor.

The cooling method was also tried in 1989 in Hawaii to keep lava from destroying the Wahaula Visitor Center. It failed, and lava set the visitors center ablaze.

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Lava diversion goes back to the 17th century. When Sicily’s Mount Etna threatened the east coast town of Catania in 1669, townspeople made a barrier and diverted the flow to a nearby town called Paterno. Paterno residents, understandably miffed, then disrupted the breach and sent the lava back to Catania ( ), which was substantially damaged, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Sicilians tried it again in 1983 when Etna started spewing. They used rock and ash to create a wall.

“They were trying to slow it down and direct it downhill,” Shannon Nawotniak, a professor of geology at Idaho State University, told BBC News Magazine.

One barrier, almost 60 feet high, failed, and at least two others kept the lava from encroaching on a tourist spot.

The most recent attempt was in 1992. Again, Etna sent lava down the mountain — this time toward Zafferana. Attempts at diverting it were not as successful.

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dig a trench for it to follow into the ocean.

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