11-29-2010, 06:35 AM
This is something I have always wondered about. Practically speaking, could you build a home way up on either concrete stilts or on a buldozed pile of fill, such that the lava would go under or around, and if that worked, what good would it do you? How long does the lava stay hot? I think the answer is that in some cases a lava tube or even a surface flow stays active for years. The best you could hope for is that the flow adds several feet of elevation to the surrounding topography but moves on after a couple of months.
When you look at it dispassionately like that it seems futile to try to build a lava proof house because if the lava has come your way then you have to assume it'll stay hot for months, and yet (not surprisingly but rather futilely) people will stand between their house and an advancing wall of lava with a garden hose as though stopping that one little tongue of lava will help.
When you look at it dispassionately like that it seems futile to try to build a lava proof house because if the lava has come your way then you have to assume it'll stay hot for months, and yet (not surprisingly but rather futilely) people will stand between their house and an advancing wall of lava with a garden hose as though stopping that one little tongue of lava will help.