From
Bad Astronomy:
On Sep. 27, a group of hikers were enjoying the fall weather on the Japanese volcano Mount Ontake. Suddenly, the volcano erupted, letting loose an incredible pyroclastic flow, a torrent of superheated ash that barrels down the slopes of the volcano like a thundering wall of death. The hikers tried to get away, but the flow was far faster… still, one of them managed to get video.
[Yes, it's vertical, so turn your head. And give the videographer a break, they were literally running for their life.]
My heart was pounding in my throat watching that; ever since I started reading about volcanoes years ago, pyroclastic flows fill me with visceral terror. They are implacable and unyielding; my friend and geologist Mika McKinnon calls them “rolling clouds of murder.” It is almost beyond imagination that the hikers survived. In fact, given how many people were on the mountain that day, it’s truly remarkable anyone survived. However, there have been no confirmed deaths as I write this (one had been reported but was subsequently retracted). [UPDATE (Sep 28., 2014 at 15:00 UTC): Well, damn. I'm very sorry to add that overnight reports say that least 31 people have been killed by the eruption.]
14 Comments
siftbotTags for this video have been changed from 'volcano, run' to 'volcano, run, Mount Ontake, japan, hikers, pyroclastic' - edited by eric3579
eric3579I always though pyroclastic flows were super heated. Had no idea they were survivable.
eric3579first backup was a jip/trick by Break. sorry
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ChaosEngineJesus, that is terrifying
eric3579*backup found with good resolution and stabilized adjusted. I will replace the original unstabilized video with this backup.
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oritteropoThat's right. These guys got the ash, but the hikers closer to the peak weren't so lucky. In the description, Kuroda Terutoshi writes
which means something like that he survived, a refuge hut was nearby. Without shelter they could still have been suffocated by the ash even without superheated poison gas.I always though pyroclastic flows were super heated. Had no idea they were survivable.
gharkwhoa, that's terrifying. I still get chills when I remember the Unzen pyroclastic flow video, so it's very surprising to see that the flow (I guess mostly ash?) that hit them was not deadly at that point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPRoTQYXwuY
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XaielaoWow yea that's luck, they would have all died otherwise. Well, one hell of an experience to relate to others.
deathcowseems more like just the rolling ash cloud than a pyroclastic flow
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