20 Things I Learned in Disaster Movies

20 Things I Learned in Disaster Movies

(That actually turned out to be True)

1.  Volcanoes can boil lakes, just like in the tar pits in Volcano, it has been witnessed many times at The Boiling Lake in Dominica's Morne Trois Pitons National Park.

2.  If you're flying through extremely cold weather, the fuel in your lines CAN freeze- although not as quickly as in The Day After Tomorrow. It happened to a flight in 2008 traveling from China to London.

3.  Volcanic eruptions can cause bridges to be wiped out, just like in Dante's Peak. This is caused by lahars, which are caused by melting snow mixing with dirt causing mudslides. Here's a 2007 example.

4.  1000 foot tsunamis can happen, in fact one hit Alaska within the last hundred years. Here's a link to my 2012 article on it!

5.  You really should watch lava bombs to see where they're going, especially if they shoot up into the sky like in Volcano. Click here for a first hand account.

6.  Tornadoes can skip houses like in Twister, but it may be more of an optical illusion. Tornadoes 'skipping' houses.

7.  Volcanic activity can cause trees and wildlife to die, just like in Dante's Peak. Although it is not a 'foolproof' precursor.

8.  Cruise ships can be toppled by tsunamis and rouge waves like in 2012, it happened in 2010 in the Mediterranean Sea.

9.  Water supplies can become contaminated because of volcanic activity as seen in Dante's Peak. See here.


10.  Earthquakes can be precursors (and vice versa) for sinkholes, just like in the beginning of 2012. It happened in Louisiana this year.


11.  If you live near a volcano and the water or area around it smells like an initially lit matchstick or rotten eggs, it's sulfur! Don't drink it and send Pierce Brosnan a thank you card.

12.  Pay phones work longer in disasters because they draw they're power directly from the phone line, brought to you in part by The Day After Tomorrow.

13.  Volcanos can turn lakes into acid like in Dante's Peak, but it probably won't eat your boat- it happened during El Chincho's eruption in 1983.

14.  Giant hail like in 2012's Tokyo scene really does happen! See Here.

15. There aren't just tornadoes, there are also: sisters, waterspouts, fire whirls, dust devils, gustnadoes, landspouts and snownadoes. Thanks Helen Hunt!

16.  While an volcanic eruption can't be stopped, it's lava flows can be stopped and channeled. There have been several instances of this Volcano scene all over the world.

17.  The machines used in Twister, more accurately 'Dorothy' is a very real thing, and it didn't really work out too well just like in the movie!

18.  The human species can survive an ice age, just like in 2012 and The Colony. In fact we've already survived two.

19.  Never fly an aircraft during a volcanic eruption, you can crash just like in Dante's Peak. Here's an example from 1982.

20.  Those giant pyroclastic clouds from 2012 and Dante's Peak? Yup, they're real too.

Amy: Sometimes magma can find one of those fissures and rise up through it.
Roark: What's magma?
Rachel: Lava.
Roark: Lava? Right here in L.A?
Amy: It is one of the possibilities.
Roark: We have a history of that here in the downtown area?
Rachel: Paracutin... 1943, a Mexican farmer sees smoke coming out of the middle of his cornfield. A week later there's a volcano a thousand feet high. There's no history of anything until it happens. Then there is.

-Volcano

xoxo disaster girl