10-12-2014, 04:48 AM
"What if, when lava was about to destroy a stretch of road like 130, we covered that section of road with Quonset huts end to end"
The temperature of lava at it's source, and that flowing in a tube is a lot hotter than the moving exposed surface. Lava is self insulating, that's why lava tubes can conduct a flow for miles with little heat loss. For those who remember, the early flows in Kalapana would be perhaps three feet thick and would go around cars and abandoned equipment because they acted as a heat sink. Years ago I tossed a rock of about 100 lbs on to a red hot lava finger thinking it would be swallowed up, to my surprise it barely dented it, it just sat on top and it certainly didn't melt.
I would expect that a lava front encountering a pile of gravel would form an insulating surface and would either go around it or build up until it overwhelmed it. It would not be hot enough to melt it. Lava goes around trees and leaves a hole for another example.
With this in mind the Quonset huts idea might well work if the structure was engineered properly.
It would be an international attraction.
My complements on that original thought " randomq"
Perhaps this should be a new thread.
The temperature of lava at it's source, and that flowing in a tube is a lot hotter than the moving exposed surface. Lava is self insulating, that's why lava tubes can conduct a flow for miles with little heat loss. For those who remember, the early flows in Kalapana would be perhaps three feet thick and would go around cars and abandoned equipment because they acted as a heat sink. Years ago I tossed a rock of about 100 lbs on to a red hot lava finger thinking it would be swallowed up, to my surprise it barely dented it, it just sat on top and it certainly didn't melt.
I would expect that a lava front encountering a pile of gravel would form an insulating surface and would either go around it or build up until it overwhelmed it. It would not be hot enough to melt it. Lava goes around trees and leaves a hole for another example.
With this in mind the Quonset huts idea might well work if the structure was engineered properly.
It would be an international attraction.
My complements on that original thought " randomq"
Perhaps this should be a new thread.