Incredible footage captures the moment a man awakens a volcano by throwing an object into it.
Two people stand at the lip of a huge pit, a massive drop leading down to boiling hot lava before them.
One of them throws something in, which plummets down the pit before hitting the bottom and breaking through the crust of the lava to leave behind a hole, from which flames immediately flare out of.
A few spurts of lava follow it, at first just a few globules of the molten hot stuff, then the surface of the volcano starts pulsing and more spews forth.
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That one little hole made by the impact is suddenly much larger and begins belching out bigger and bigger globs of lava until the hole widens even further.
Within seconds what had once been a silent and unmoving surface is a roiling pond of molten turbulence and the volcano awakens all thanks to one little object being thrown into it.
The whole thing was a test by researchers who wanted to work out what would happen if a human being fell into lava from a great height.
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They conducted the experiment at the Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia, a continuously active basaltic shield volcano.
With lava being pretty dense, a person falling in would be far more likely to float rather than sink, although for the unlucky individual the difference would probably be irrelevant as they'd be dead either way.
Interestingly, lava can be dense enough that you could actually walk across it, wearing the proper protective equipment of course, because otherwise the heat would leave you horribly burned.
On a side note, you should definitely keep as far away from volcanoes as you can, as daredevils chasing eruptions can end up dying due to the deadly force of nature.
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However, they wanted to know what would happen if a person fell into a volcano from such a great height that it could potentially break through the surface crust and punch a hole in the lava.
Obviously they weren't going to use a real person because throwing test subjects into volcanoes is a nightmare to clear with health and safety, and also because murdering people is wrong.
Instead, the intrepid researchers used a box filled with organic waste weighing about 30kg to take the terrifying 80 metre plunge into the lava.
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They believe the sudden awakening of the volcano and the violent expulsion of lava owes much to the steam produced due to organic matter falling into the volcano.
Since humans are mostly water, chucking a person into a volcano would probably have pretty much the same effect, though obviously don't throw people into volcanoes for the previously mentioned reason that murder is wrong.
It should also probably be mentioned that the old proverb of letting sleeping dogs lie should go doubly for volcanoes, if you accidentally awaken one by chucking something in, you're going to have to give a hell of an explanation.
They have a nasty habit of causing massive destruction to the surrounding area, while even areas living near volcanoes which rarely erupt have to be careful.
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