December 30, 2010 • 30 mins
Volcanic eruptions are destructive and often newsworthy events, but why do they occur? What are volcanoes? In this episode, Josh and Chuck take a look (but not too close) at the forces at work behind Earth's geological "hotheads."
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from House to works dot com? Hey, welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant looking spry?
(00:21):
Are you spry? Grandma? Here comes to the Sun? What
here comes the Sun? This reminds me of the Sun Podcast.
Oh yeah, I don't think it's going to be nearly
as better. There's not nearly as much physics to it,
especially not particle physics or spooky physics. It's pretty straightforward. Really.
(00:42):
It was very richly detailed dance and structuring content. But really,
if you break it down, volcanoes, well that's what that's
what we're paid to, due Chuck, and that's what we
are going to do. Let me do my introt. First,
you ever see Joe versus the Volcano? One of my
favorite all time movies all time, like probably top five.
I've seen it at least twelve times. It's so great,
(01:04):
the pre serious Tom Hanks best role. Yeah, I think
so beats the tired of bosom buddies. I'm a big
bachelor party guy. Are you really? Um? But In this movie,
he is sent to Wapani Wu right, which means a
little island with big volcano to write to jump into
the big woo to basically appease the wall ponies. Um
(01:27):
who needs somebody to sacrifice himself into the volcano, to
call him the volcano God. So everything keep going out
right and they can keep drinking their orange soda, which yeah,
they're famous for loving. Yes, was it fanta? Uh? I
think it was in the brand for the movie? Um?
So you remember then when he jumps in. What happens? Well,
(01:48):
I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but you
remember what happens? Right? Okay, Chuck, do you realize that,
as of this week, we've reached a weird point in
our life where we can explain what happened Yeah in
that movie because it's not explained by the great John
Patrick Shanley who wrote and directed that. No, we needn't
need to because it's a movie. Yeah, but isn't that
(02:10):
weird that were we sitting next to our other significant
others watching this movie, we could turn to them and say,
here's actually what happened, and this is the type of
thing that just happened. Yeah, of course it really wouldn't
happen that way, but well, we'll figure it out. I
don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn't
seen it, because we've been chastised for spoiling like thirty
year old movies before in series that ended like ten
(02:32):
years ago. Yeah, good series, thought phoned home. Let's talk
about volcanoes and how they work, Josh. A volcano, a
lot of people might say, is a big mountain with
a square top that's bits fire everywhere and kills people.
I don't know about square top. That is not true,
(02:52):
because any place on the planet Earth where the Earth,
the inner Earth, leaks out into the outer Earth, is
a volcano wherever Earth gets a boo boo. Yeah right,
it's exactly right. Yeah. So the Earth is composed of
three we should we should really just do the broad
stroke basics real quick. The Earth is composed of three
(03:14):
general mega layers. Right, You've got the thinnest layer, which
is the outer crust, which is what we walk around on,
which is the bottom of the ocean, the kind of
things deep in land. And that sounds no on yes,
you're right, that sounds super big, but that's actually really thin.
So from its thinnest part at the bottom of the ocean,
it's three miles down, we're thick up to like you said, yeah,
(03:37):
forty four miles right, and then under that you've got
the mantle, right, and then you have the inner core,
which is um where the the inner core the inner
earth people that right, Yeah, And the mantle is the
biggest part, really really hot but not melty because of
one word that is the key to all things volcano pressure.
(03:59):
Pressure pressure. Any time, like everything about volcanoes is pressure related.
It seems like it's, yes, it's hot enough this so
this mantle it is solid, but it's so it's hot
enough to melt, but the pressure is so great it
can't melt. It can't be liquid. It's forced to stay
in this solid form, right. Um. The other key thing
(04:19):
that we need to we need to touch on before
we get into volcanoes is the continental drift theory plate tectonics.
Right that there are set at least seven large plates
and some minor plates as well that are the outer
crust that are moving over the um mantle via the athenisphere.
(04:40):
And it's like this kind of liquid layer, this lubricating
layer between the crust and the mantle. Right. And then
so any time these boundaries where these boundaries are, there's
there's a potential for volcanic activity. Right, But that's not
the all encompassing explanation for volcanoes, right the right. There
(05:00):
are several ways that volcanic activity can occur as far
as plate tectonics goes. Let's cover those first, Chuckers, I'll
take the first one. Uh, these plates can move away
from each other, sometimes not necessarily toward each other. They
can move away when they move away from each other. Um,
if you're if it's over water, I'm sorry, underwater. Under
(05:23):
the water, it's a specific subsurface. Subsurface, then that's an
ocean ridge. If it's under the land, it's a continental ridge.
And Uh, these plates drift apart, and then the mantle
all of a sudden doesn't have as much pressure, so
it can actually melt finally because it's so hot, and
then it bubbles up through the little cracks there. Then
(05:45):
once it gets there, it gets cool, hardens again, forms
an all new crust and kind of just fills up
that gap. And that's called spread spreading center volcanism. And
that's where two plates are moving apart, moving apart. Now,
if you want to talk about subduction zone volcanism, which
I do feel allow me. That's where two plates are
(06:06):
moving together. And if you remember from the earthquake podcast,
we covered a lot of this and that too. A
subduction zone is where one where plates are pressing up
against one another and one is pushed under the other. Right,
this forms a trench, a hole in the earth big time. Okay.
So with the spreading center volcanism, magma flowed out because
(06:28):
of this, uh, this lower pressure, it was allowed to
go to its liquid form. With um subduction. We haven't
said what magma is. That's liquid rock. Nice, very important
it is. This is the this is what makes up
the mantle for the most part as well. Right, So
this is the stuff that can that is very hot
but is under so much pressure it stays solid. Well,
(06:50):
I think it becomes magma once it turns fluid. Okay,
and then once and here's the distinction between magma and
lava once it exits the earth, lava, it's lava. So
go ahead, okay, nice one, chuck, good catch um. So
with subduction zone volcanism, uh, the magma actually the melting
(07:11):
point is lowered with the introduction of water. So either
water enters the trench created by this subduction zone or
um ambient water from the rock around it enters it,
or it's like squeezed out of it exactly. So either way,
this introduction of of water lowers the melting point and
allows this, uh, the mantle to become magma, as is
(07:35):
its destiny. Right, So that's colliding and then shifting under
one another subduction you can also collide and you just collide.
You meet each other head on, two plates collide and boom,
you've got mountains, not volcano right, right, But this is
usually just a subduction zone that hasn't happened yet. Eventually
(07:55):
one of them is probably gonna slip under the other
and but for the kind of just like pull of rams. Yeah,
and then you've got plates moving up against each other.
I think that was a slip strike fault, wasn't it
in the earthquake podcast, I don't remember. I think it
was where they're just like one's going south and one's
going north. Um, that forms a transformed plate boundary and
(08:17):
there's almost never volcanic activity. Uh, there's another way they
can form, and this is kind of a cool one, uh,
interplate or hot spot volcanic activity. Right, we should say
that everything we just talked about, all of those were
found along plate boundaries. And this is like within a
solid plate, right, Yeah, within a plate, you can get
a hot spot in the middle of it because the
(08:39):
mantle basically forms a hot plume. It comes up from
the bottom and gets hotter and hotter, and then eventually
reaches you know, right underneath I guess, I guess the lithosphere.
I guess the lithosphere and creates a hot spot, and
it's really an unusual heat. It forms magma right under
(08:59):
the earth crust and that stays there, but then the
plates move over it. And as each plate moves over it,
it forms the whole string of little volcanos, which is
how the Hawaii volcanoes were created seventy million years old.
By the way, this is a very slow process, but
it is a process if you sped it up really
fast and be like, okay, yeah, this plate is moving
(09:20):
over it, and that's that's that hot spot volcano. Right.
Interplate volcanic activity is what it's called. Yeah, And I
think they point out that most of the land volcanoes
are the subduction zone that you mentioned, and then the
hot hot spot ones and then in the ocean it's
mostly the um spreading center of volcanism I belief, yes, right, yes,
all right, So Chuck, we've got magma, right, yeah, Or
(09:43):
let's say we don't have magma, we have a mantle. Yeah.
And then something happens. So this this mantle shifts a
little bit in starts to move upward. Right. Um. Something
is something is given way to the downward pressure of
the rock surrounding it. And so this magma, which is hot,
it's just under a lot of pressure. Uh, And it
(10:05):
wants to be liquid. It's less dense, and it's able
to move up. The further moves up, the less pressure
there is. So it's just gonna keep going upward and
upward and upward. And that's how magma starts to move
towards the Earth's surface. Right. And one thing I used
to build ponds for a living, and one thing that is, uh,
you'll find when you ever try to build a pond.
(10:25):
Water is very lazy and it wants to go to
the path of least resistance. Liquids are, right, So it
will always find something you overlooked and cause a leak.
Same thing I imagine with lava or magma. It's liquid,
so it's going through any crack or crevice that can find.
And as long as the upward pressure created by the
lower density of the magma is greater than the downward
(10:49):
pressure of the surrounding rock, it will keep going up. Yeah.
But once there is enough pressure, like let's say it
just kept going up and eventually with spew out and
you've got a volcano. But if there just happens to
be enough pressure and it's like no stop, then it
kind of has a little waiting zone in a magma chamber, right,
and it just fills up and it's like I can
wait seventy million years, right, don't don't be a mistaken brother.
(11:13):
Don't there that that We just sounded like zazy top
um Jerry like that, so chuck um. That explains how
lava enters the Earth's crust, holes in the Earth's crust
and creates um what we'll talk about in a second
Hawaiian type volcanoes Hawaiian type eruptions, I should say, we're
(11:36):
basically the lava is just coming out, bubbling up over
the surface and flowing real slowly um creating little lava ponds, right,
and creators and stuff like this. Just it's cool looking,
not very dangerous if you can walk at all, yeah,
I mean it's slow, right, or even drank yourself slowly,
you could probably beat the lava. But the one that
(11:56):
everybody wants to know about our eruptions, like the spectacular,
like the um Iceland volcano. Right, I'm not even going
to attempt a pronunciation of this, which, by the way,
caused at least one point seven billion dollars to the
airlines alone in lost revenue. Yeah. Um, it was a
strato volcano by the way. We'll talk about that in
(12:16):
a minute. Okay, yes, but with a huge explosion. It's
not just this lower density of the magma now, it's
it has to do with the gases inside, and magma
is what magma eats, right, Yeah, And I mean this
is sort of like the It reminds me of the
Lake Nyos exploding lakes. It's it's a build up of
gas pressure internally within the magma. Uh, it's a lot
(12:40):
of dissolved gas and they're they're stuck that way dissolved,
which is all fine, and they're kept you know, thanks
to pressure confined in there. But when the vapor pressure
gets greater than the pressure surrounding it, it forms little vesicles,
which are little gas bubbles, and then it's time. And
that's when you know you've got some trouble because those
bubbles they gotta get out. It's like a soda soda can.
(13:01):
It's exactly like it's the exact same principle of a soda. Right.
So if you open a soda, all the bubbles rushed
to the top, and that's if it's just a regular old,
non shaking touched it or anything. If you shake it up,
you're actually mixing those bubbles in with the liquid. So
when those bubbles rushed to the top, they're going to
bring a lot of the liquid with them. This is
the same exact principle that's behind a volcanic eruption. Okay,
(13:23):
but in this case, magma is the soda exactly, and
the bubbles are the gases from the dissolved rock. Okay, right, yeah,
I'm with you. So then there's two factors you said
that um that pressure was had everything to do with
volcanic activity with eruptions, there's two um two factors, two
general factors that really have an effect on what kind
(13:45):
of volcanic. Volcanic eruption takes place, and that is viscosity,
which is I can never keep it straight, but now
I've got it. Viscosity is the ability to resist flow,
rightlid Right. If it's high viscosity, which means it has
a high ability to resist flow, which means it's thick stuff,
(14:06):
it's molasses. If it has a low ability to resist flow,
meaning you're pouring something out of a cup and creating flow.
If as a low ability, it's going to flow very
easily and quickly out of it. So it's low viscosity.
So viscosity and the amount of gas bubbles present are
going to determine what kind of volcanic eruption you have. Right.
If it's high viscosity, which means it's very thick, then
(14:27):
it will be a big eruption, right because it tried
very hard to get out exactly. And then the opposite
is true if it's a low viscosity and the more
gas is present, the more imagine just these little bubbles,
the more little bubbles that are trying to get out,
the higher the viscosity, the harder they're going to try
to get out, and then when they do get out, kaboom, right,
(14:49):
which is determined by how much silicon is in the magma,
which I thought it was a little weird or not weird,
but just I had no idea, So Chuck, we have.
Um when when it does go kaboom, that's called the
eruption column, right, it's composed of hot gas ash pyroclastic rocks,
which is lava in solid form. Right. Um. And that one,
(15:12):
that one flow I was talking about Hawaii, the real
slow kind of lumbering flow where's just bubbling over its effusive. Yeah,
and that I mean that's not super dangerous because it's
so slow, but it's still destructive eventually, Yeah, slowly destructive.
If you're a plant that's stationary, you're in trouble because
plants can't walk at all. Let's talk about the different
(15:33):
types of eruptions, man, Yeah, there's a bunch of these. Uh.
My favorite is a Strombolian. It's definitely the most delicious
for one reason and one reason alone. It's pretty impressive,
not too dangerous. About fifty feet in the air. It's
gonna be spewing a little short bursts, very highly viscous,
(15:56):
so gas really has to build up in order for
this to happen. But they're pretty the small eruptions, not
much lava going on, they make a big boom, yeah,
a little ashy tefra, which is always nice in your
volcanic eruption, right, and tefras that that fall in volcanic material.
A lot of things like uh, undergo a change in
name after they become after they've been a verb at
(16:19):
some point, so like it goes from magma to lava
to tefra. Yeah, right, and that's all rock or it depends.
It could be asked, tefra is just any of the
material that comes out of volcano and is landed. Oh
I thought you said originally it was all magma. That's
well yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're good, good chuck. Right.
(16:40):
And then we also have the plenty in eruption, right,
which the Yeah, this is the type of eruption that
covered that came out of Mountain Vesuvius and I think
and covered Herculaneum and Pompeii. Yeah, these are the big
daddies that you think of when you think of volcano.
The big upward thrust, the thirty mile column of junk
(17:02):
that is shooting out. That is the plenty in eruption,
right yeah. I mean it's bad news for anyone around there,
don't you think I would think so? Yeah, and not
even right around there. I mean, like it can shoot
pyroclastic material thirty miles into the air undred hundreds of
(17:23):
feet per second. That's a big explosion. Um and uh so,
I imagine I couldn't find it. Looked all over the
place to find out what type of eruption the Iceland
volcano underwent in April. It couldn't find it. But this
sounds a lot like a plenty in eruption. I mean,
if they were shutting down air service in like southern
Europe because of the ash that it entered the atmosphere.
(17:44):
From this, it sounds like it was probably plenty allans
I guess was to right, Yeah, basically all the ones
you can rattle off off the top of your head,
there's a probably plenty in volcan What about the Hawaiian
Those are the really slow effusive ones, right yeah. But
they have like fire fountains, like they're cool to look at,
yeah for sure, and it's cool sounding, yeah, And they
(18:05):
can produce a lava lakes which are ponds of lava craters.
Pretty cool. Yes, I've never been to Hawaii though, you
know Strickland has, Oh yes he has. He loves talking
about the Hawaiian eruptions ives butchering the Hawaiian names of
things too. Are those other ones smaller and less frequent?
The the volcanian, hydro volcanic, and fissure. Yeah, the most
(18:27):
common eruption types of the plenty in Hawaiian and Strombolian,
and then less common like the real. Like, if you're
an aficionado of of volcanoes, then you're gonna want to
know about the volcano and hydro hydro volcanic and fisher.
Like you said, the fisher has the curtain of fire.
It occurs along like a a trench. It's not like
a mountain. It's basically there's a tear in the earth
(18:51):
and the the magma is becoming lava and like this
big curtain of fire. I can't really call it anything
else in it be is dead on sure. The volcan
ian is cool because of the pyroclastic bombs that it
will shoot into the air, like football size bombs of
of hot rock. This is the Earth being angry. The
gods are awakening. Well, this is the other saying I'm
(19:14):
I'm moving around, dude. And then hydro volcanic compares a
little um explaining this is a volcano that it takes
place not underwater, but near water, near um, a very
high humidity area, and basically the interaction of the water
creates this chain reaction that turns the volcanic material into
this fine ash right Um. It can also melt a
(19:36):
lot of surrounding snow um, which can cause landslides and
a lot of trouble for people. Yes, so those are
the types of eruptions. Are you still awake and are
you still with this so far? Anyway? Right? People like, oh, yeah,
the sun. Uh should we talk about the shapes or
(19:59):
just the frequent the of eruption? Well, let's talk about
the shapes, because there's there's the basically, there's three components
to a volcano. Every volcano, right Um. You've got the
magma chamber, which we talked about, it's where it builds up.
You've got the central event, which is the the this
little connecting area, this is where it starts to. This
is the fissure that it comes out of the crater,
(20:21):
right you've got the summit crater, which is where it
explodes out of right, and then um, you've got different
types of volcanoes, three main shapes, and the strato volcanoes.
So a strato volcano with a plenty in eruption is
what everyone thinks of as a volcano, right, the classic
what what you would build for your science school project
with the baking soda. That's a strato volcano. That's right.
(20:44):
Unless you're a really forward thinking kid and you're like,
I'm going to build a scory of tone volcano for
extra points, which actually, if you did do that, you'd
be pretty smart, because, um, while the strato volcano is
the most familiar, the scory of cone volcano is the
most common. Yeah, I guess would be a very smart kid. Yes,
And if there's any seventh graders out there looking for
(21:04):
a cooler volcano, you want to add a little zing
your volcano, make a scory of cone and say, Josh
and Chuck, san't you and get prepared to be beaten
fire classmates. Score of cones, by the way, if you
need a little help, are Um, they're smaller, they're steep
on both sides, um, and they're very wide right, uh,
(21:25):
And they're usually composed of ashy tephra ashy telfra shield volcanoes,
that's the last kind. They're wide short, low viscosity dispersal
of lava. So it's just a big using blob basically,
and it builds up into like a shield like dome.
And these these are repped like every few years, very frequent.
(21:45):
So um, we'll talk about eruption a second. A good
example of a shield volcanoes Mounta Looa, and a good
example of a score of cone is Sunset Crater in Arizona.
Yeah all right, Chuck, Josh, you ever heard of Crater
Lake in Oregon? Yeah? Yeah, Gortis. Isn't there like a
down World War two plane or something in there? I
don't know. Is that just like a cloud Cussler novel
(22:07):
I'm thinking of? I have no idea. Well, Crater Lake
was actually in extinct. We imagine an extinct volcano. Um Basically,
the magma chamber blew it all at once, collapsed in
on itself. The the crater collapses in on itself and
it eventually fills in with water. It's called the caldera, yes,
until it's full of water. Then it's called the lake.
(22:28):
That's right. Once again, add something, change the name. How
many volcanoes are there active right now working in the
world today, I'm gonna guess four. You would be off
by about a hundred. What do you mean you're gonna
guess you have the same information I do. Let's trying
(22:48):
to mix it up. Uh, they are active volcanoes five
hundred around the world. And the classifications a little inexact,
even the revised classifications a little inexacutive. I didn't vers.
Here's why though. This is why it's inexact and subjective,
because we don't have anything that won't melt if we
try to really get a good look inside of a volcano. Yeah,
(23:12):
so it's all just kind of like, well, yeah, it's smoking,
so we're gonna call that an active volcano. The ones
in uh, there was at least one when we were
in Guatemala, remember, and then one went off right after
Jerry was there? Really I think, so yeah, wow, yeah,
we'll find out after we stopped recording an ASCAR. So
the classifications, even though it's inexact, we will quote them
(23:34):
here if it's erupting obviously or or demonstrating some kind
of activity within recorded history, right, then it's active. And
why we say it's inaccurate because recorded history varies big time. Uh.
If it is not showing any signs, but it has
erupted with years, then uh it is you know, could
(23:56):
potentially erupt again. So it's dormant, but it could could
go off. If it has not erupted in ten thousand years,
then it's extinct, they say, right, but I say, all
bets are off. Man, you never know. No, I agree wholeheartedly.
I think, Um, if you're dealing with plate tectonics and um,
there's clearly not any kind of magma chamber around that
(24:19):
we can detect, it probably is extinct. But as we said,
they have revised the the rating of volcanoes, right, Um,
so now if it's showing anything, is that what you
just did was the revised version, because they really are
similar to the original version. Basically. The only change is
now if it's showing anything, then it's it's active. Right. Yeah. Weird,
(24:45):
And uh here's the cool fact of the day. Right. Uh.
And any given day, ten volcanoes are erupting. Yeah, that
aren't a big deal. Probably, well they are if you're
staying next to Yeah, but it's not newsmakers, I would say. Yeah.
And then one volcano is thought to have wiped out
an entire civilization, Sanderini in Greece. Really yeah, the Minoan
(25:07):
civilization suddenly disappeared, and they're starting to think that it
was because they melted pretty much. Yeah, well, that's it
for volcanoes. If you want to see some really boss
volcano pictures, I know where you can just type volcanoes
into the search bar at how stuff works dot com.
You've made it through this one. Pay yourself on the back.
But hey, we've all got to understand volcanoes, right all right?
(25:28):
So yeah, okay, since I said search bar, that means
it's time for listener mail. So that is not only
the end of volcanoes, Josh, that's the end of this
is something else. Can you believe this? Can you believe?
I know you we're in the future like I thought.
I thought it'd be in like spaceships and have pill
(25:49):
meals that I could eat. I have pill meals in
my pocket right now. Really, what you got? I have
pot roasts and turkey and stuff. Did you add water
and it becomes a big meal. You just eat it,
you see, and it tastes like all that and get
pulled up. So uh, you know, at the end of
every year we like to say thanks. Obviously we're still
on the air, and we wouldn't be if you guys
(26:10):
weren't listening. No, we would be, you know, just doing
our regular thing right in the articles, crying ourselves, crying
ourselves to sleep. Yeah, thank you for listening to all
of you, a new people, all of you vets, all
of you returning friends, everybody. Happy New Year to all
of you very much. Um yeah, yeah, that's all I got.
I mean, I I don't want to make a big
(26:31):
deal out of it because I just want to keep
on going through. Here's to the next year and eleven
months in eleven days left of earth? Yeah right, you
want me to sing uh all anzig? Please? Can we
get can we get Jerry to put it over? Or
at leastly there's no rights on all at least Fogelberg's
same old Anzig the Satas song in history. Oh that
(26:53):
is a good one. Let's hear it shun oh no never,
but I do have listen to mail. Well do you
know an album that hear it on? Uh? The Innocent Age? Okay,
So do you. Was it a good album? Yeah, I
mean I actually owned that. I was a little kid.
I was like twelve listening to that song thinking it
was sad when I was the wealth and that's Dan
Fogelberg and uh it's what's the name, same old things
(27:14):
on and what's the album The Innocent Age the Seas.
So this is listener mail Josh from Kyle and this
(27:35):
is about our our Chronica podcast which we got some
pretty good marks from from our Jewish friends. Yeah, we
did here there, although I got good try. I had
a few people that are are converted Jews say, hey,
Chuck when he said it's not the same thing, that
really hurt my feelings. I wasn't saying for you, it's
not the same for me like I would I would
(27:56):
feel like a I would still feel like a boy.
So it's not the same for you. But in Chuck's
opinion of you, it's the same. Yeah, that's that doesn't
make you any less Jewish if you're if you've converted.
I wasn't saying that at all. I was a kid.
I don't want to hur anyone's feelings. Hey, guys, great
job on the Hanaka podcast. I'm a seventeen year old
from De Plaine, Illinois. It's the home of the McDonald's Museum,
(28:18):
right home of the first McDonald's. He says, I was
raised atheists my whole life until the fourth grade, when
I learned about religion, and as much as research a
fourth grader can do, I decided I wanted to be Jewish.
I love this guy in the fourth grade. He's like,
I want to be Jewish. That's pretty cool, and he
did it. I realized that in college and I didn't
(28:39):
do it. I ended up converting, being bar Mitzvoued, learned Hebrew,
and now plan on joining the Israeli Army. Wow, I heard.
I heard about this the real deal. I find it
to be an amazing religion, and I loved your podcast
on it. I just want to show you something you
might find interesting. None gimmal hey shin, which appear the
(29:00):
dradle in almost every country in the world nska dol
haya sham means a great miracle happened there, while in
Israel the Dradel says none gimmal hey hey, which means
a great miracle happened here. Cool. So in Israel they
have a different radel because it's like could happened here
and not there, as I've always found that interesting. Just
(29:21):
want to let you in. Thanks for the podcast. And
that is from Kyle the New Jew. I really think
Kyle was on MPR. I've heard an interview with somebody
who had converted in the US and was now like
going to Israel to join the Israeli army. Was a
young guy like that? Yeah, he was young dude. It
(29:41):
might be him. I wonder if it was, we'll have
to check it out. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah, he
should have come to us first, though, I agree whole
hard at time, he's making the rounds of the media
secure right hey, by the way, I mean that's what
he's saying to everybody, right, Yeah, I was on stuff
you should know and MPR. Right, well, chuck again. Happy
two thousand and eleven to you. Happy New Year. Congratulations
(30:03):
sir on another year making it through another year with
me having to deal with me. Hey, it's every year
gets easier. Is gonna be a breeze? Nice? Um. If
you have a New Year's resolution that you think is
worth writing down and sending to us, you can also
bring it up on Facebook. I'm sure there'll be plenty
of stuff there. You can tweet it to us s
y SK podcast um, and if you want to just
(30:26):
put it in an email. If you're a confidential type,
address it to Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
that how stuff works dot com. To learn more about
the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper
right corner of our homepage. The house stuff Works iPhone
(30:47):
app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes, brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from House to works dot com? Hey, welcome to the podcast.
I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant looking spry?
(00:21):
Are you spry? Grandma? Here comes to the Sun? What
here comes the Sun? This reminds me of the Sun Podcast.
Oh yeah, I don't think it's going to be nearly
as better. There's not nearly as much physics to it,
especially not particle physics or spooky physics. It's pretty straightforward. Really.
(00:42):
It was very richly detailed dance and structuring content. But really,
if you break it down, volcanoes, well that's what that's
what we're paid to, due Chuck, and that's what we
are going to do. Let me do my introt. First,
you ever see Joe versus the Volcano? One of my
favorite all time movies all time, like probably top five.
I've seen it at least twelve times. It's so great,
(01:04):
the pre serious Tom Hanks best role. Yeah, I think
so beats the tired of bosom buddies. I'm a big
bachelor party guy. Are you really? Um? But In this movie,
he is sent to Wapani Wu right, which means a
little island with big volcano to write to jump into
the big woo to basically appease the wall ponies. Um
(01:27):
who needs somebody to sacrifice himself into the volcano, to
call him the volcano God. So everything keep going out
right and they can keep drinking their orange soda, which yeah,
they're famous for loving. Yes, was it fanta? Uh? I
think it was in the brand for the movie? Um?
So you remember then when he jumps in. What happens? Well,
(01:48):
I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but you
remember what happens? Right? Okay, Chuck, do you realize that,
as of this week, we've reached a weird point in
our life where we can explain what happened Yeah in
that movie because it's not explained by the great John
Patrick Shanley who wrote and directed that. No, we needn't
need to because it's a movie. Yeah, but isn't that
(02:10):
weird that were we sitting next to our other significant
others watching this movie, we could turn to them and say,
here's actually what happened, and this is the type of
thing that just happened. Yeah, of course it really wouldn't
happen that way, but well, we'll figure it out. I
don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn't
seen it, because we've been chastised for spoiling like thirty
year old movies before in series that ended like ten
(02:32):
years ago. Yeah, good series, thought phoned home. Let's talk
about volcanoes and how they work, Josh. A volcano, a
lot of people might say, is a big mountain with
a square top that's bits fire everywhere and kills people.
I don't know about square top. That is not true,
(02:52):
because any place on the planet Earth where the Earth,
the inner Earth, leaks out into the outer Earth, is
a volcano wherever Earth gets a boo boo. Yeah right,
it's exactly right. Yeah. So the Earth is composed of
three we should we should really just do the broad
stroke basics real quick. The Earth is composed of three
(03:14):
general mega layers. Right, You've got the thinnest layer, which
is the outer crust, which is what we walk around on,
which is the bottom of the ocean, the kind of
things deep in land. And that sounds no on yes,
you're right, that sounds super big, but that's actually really thin.
So from its thinnest part at the bottom of the ocean,
it's three miles down, we're thick up to like you said, yeah,
(03:37):
forty four miles right, and then under that you've got
the mantle, right, and then you have the inner core,
which is um where the the inner core the inner
earth people that right, Yeah, And the mantle is the
biggest part, really really hot but not melty because of
one word that is the key to all things volcano pressure.
(03:59):
Pressure pressure. Any time, like everything about volcanoes is pressure related.
It seems like it's, yes, it's hot enough this so
this mantle it is solid, but it's so it's hot
enough to melt, but the pressure is so great it
can't melt. It can't be liquid. It's forced to stay
in this solid form, right. Um. The other key thing
(04:19):
that we need to we need to touch on before
we get into volcanoes is the continental drift theory plate tectonics.
Right that there are set at least seven large plates
and some minor plates as well that are the outer
crust that are moving over the um mantle via the athenisphere.
(04:40):
And it's like this kind of liquid layer, this lubricating
layer between the crust and the mantle. Right. And then
so any time these boundaries where these boundaries are, there's
there's a potential for volcanic activity. Right, But that's not
the all encompassing explanation for volcanoes, right the right. There
(05:00):
are several ways that volcanic activity can occur as far
as plate tectonics goes. Let's cover those first, Chuckers, I'll
take the first one. Uh, these plates can move away
from each other, sometimes not necessarily toward each other. They
can move away when they move away from each other. Um,
if you're if it's over water, I'm sorry, underwater. Under
(05:23):
the water, it's a specific subsurface. Subsurface, then that's an
ocean ridge. If it's under the land, it's a continental ridge.
And Uh, these plates drift apart, and then the mantle
all of a sudden doesn't have as much pressure, so
it can actually melt finally because it's so hot, and
then it bubbles up through the little cracks there. Then
(05:45):
once it gets there, it gets cool, hardens again, forms
an all new crust and kind of just fills up
that gap. And that's called spread spreading center volcanism. And
that's where two plates are moving apart, moving apart. Now,
if you want to talk about subduction zone volcanism, which
I do feel allow me. That's where two plates are
(06:06):
moving together. And if you remember from the earthquake podcast,
we covered a lot of this and that too. A
subduction zone is where one where plates are pressing up
against one another and one is pushed under the other. Right,
this forms a trench, a hole in the earth big time. Okay.
So with the spreading center volcanism, magma flowed out because
(06:28):
of this, uh, this lower pressure, it was allowed to
go to its liquid form. With um subduction. We haven't
said what magma is. That's liquid rock. Nice, very important
it is. This is the this is what makes up
the mantle for the most part as well. Right, So
this is the stuff that can that is very hot
but is under so much pressure it stays solid. Well,
(06:50):
I think it becomes magma once it turns fluid. Okay,
and then once and here's the distinction between magma and
lava once it exits the earth, lava, it's lava. So
go ahead, okay, nice one, chuck, good catch um. So
with subduction zone volcanism, uh, the magma actually the melting
(07:11):
point is lowered with the introduction of water. So either
water enters the trench created by this subduction zone or
um ambient water from the rock around it enters it,
or it's like squeezed out of it exactly. So either way,
this introduction of of water lowers the melting point and
allows this, uh, the mantle to become magma, as is
(07:35):
its destiny. Right, So that's colliding and then shifting under
one another subduction you can also collide and you just collide.
You meet each other head on, two plates collide and boom,
you've got mountains, not volcano right, right, But this is
usually just a subduction zone that hasn't happened yet. Eventually
(07:55):
one of them is probably gonna slip under the other
and but for the kind of just like pull of rams. Yeah,
and then you've got plates moving up against each other.
I think that was a slip strike fault, wasn't it
in the earthquake podcast, I don't remember. I think it
was where they're just like one's going south and one's
going north. Um, that forms a transformed plate boundary and
(08:17):
there's almost never volcanic activity. Uh, there's another way they
can form, and this is kind of a cool one, uh,
interplate or hot spot volcanic activity. Right, we should say
that everything we just talked about, all of those were
found along plate boundaries. And this is like within a
solid plate, right, Yeah, within a plate, you can get
a hot spot in the middle of it because the
(08:39):
mantle basically forms a hot plume. It comes up from
the bottom and gets hotter and hotter, and then eventually
reaches you know, right underneath I guess, I guess the lithosphere.
I guess the lithosphere and creates a hot spot, and
it's really an unusual heat. It forms magma right under
(08:59):
the earth crust and that stays there, but then the
plates move over it. And as each plate moves over it,
it forms the whole string of little volcanos, which is
how the Hawaii volcanoes were created seventy million years old.
By the way, this is a very slow process, but
it is a process if you sped it up really
fast and be like, okay, yeah, this plate is moving
(09:20):
over it, and that's that's that hot spot volcano. Right.
Interplate volcanic activity is what it's called. Yeah, And I
think they point out that most of the land volcanoes
are the subduction zone that you mentioned, and then the
hot hot spot ones and then in the ocean it's
mostly the um spreading center of volcanism I belief, yes, right, yes,
all right, So Chuck, we've got magma, right, yeah, Or
(09:43):
let's say we don't have magma, we have a mantle. Yeah.
And then something happens. So this this mantle shifts a
little bit in starts to move upward. Right. Um. Something
is something is given way to the downward pressure of
the rock surrounding it. And so this magma, which is hot,
it's just under a lot of pressure. Uh, And it
(10:05):
wants to be liquid. It's less dense, and it's able
to move up. The further moves up, the less pressure
there is. So it's just gonna keep going upward and
upward and upward. And that's how magma starts to move
towards the Earth's surface. Right. And one thing I used
to build ponds for a living, and one thing that is, uh,
you'll find when you ever try to build a pond.
(10:25):
Water is very lazy and it wants to go to
the path of least resistance. Liquids are, right, So it
will always find something you overlooked and cause a leak.
Same thing I imagine with lava or magma. It's liquid,
so it's going through any crack or crevice that can find.
And as long as the upward pressure created by the
lower density of the magma is greater than the downward
(10:49):
pressure of the surrounding rock, it will keep going up. Yeah.
But once there is enough pressure, like let's say it
just kept going up and eventually with spew out and
you've got a volcano. But if there just happens to
be enough pressure and it's like no stop, then it
kind of has a little waiting zone in a magma chamber, right,
and it just fills up and it's like I can
wait seventy million years, right, don't don't be a mistaken brother.
(11:13):
Don't there that that We just sounded like zazy top
um Jerry like that, so chuck um. That explains how
lava enters the Earth's crust, holes in the Earth's crust
and creates um what we'll talk about in a second
Hawaiian type volcanoes Hawaiian type eruptions, I should say, we're
(11:36):
basically the lava is just coming out, bubbling up over
the surface and flowing real slowly um creating little lava ponds, right,
and creators and stuff like this. Just it's cool looking,
not very dangerous if you can walk at all, yeah,
I mean it's slow, right, or even drank yourself slowly,
you could probably beat the lava. But the one that
(11:56):
everybody wants to know about our eruptions, like the spectacular,
like the um Iceland volcano. Right, I'm not even going
to attempt a pronunciation of this, which, by the way,
caused at least one point seven billion dollars to the
airlines alone in lost revenue. Yeah. Um, it was a
strato volcano by the way. We'll talk about that in
(12:16):
a minute. Okay, yes, but with a huge explosion. It's
not just this lower density of the magma now, it's
it has to do with the gases inside, and magma
is what magma eats, right, Yeah, And I mean this
is sort of like the It reminds me of the
Lake Nyos exploding lakes. It's it's a build up of
gas pressure internally within the magma. Uh, it's a lot
(12:40):
of dissolved gas and they're they're stuck that way dissolved,
which is all fine, and they're kept you know, thanks
to pressure confined in there. But when the vapor pressure
gets greater than the pressure surrounding it, it forms little vesicles,
which are little gas bubbles, and then it's time. And
that's when you know you've got some trouble because those
bubbles they gotta get out. It's like a soda soda can.
(13:01):
It's exactly like it's the exact same principle of a soda. Right.
So if you open a soda, all the bubbles rushed
to the top, and that's if it's just a regular old,
non shaking touched it or anything. If you shake it up,
you're actually mixing those bubbles in with the liquid. So
when those bubbles rushed to the top, they're going to
bring a lot of the liquid with them. This is
the same exact principle that's behind a volcanic eruption. Okay,
(13:23):
but in this case, magma is the soda exactly, and
the bubbles are the gases from the dissolved rock. Okay, right, yeah,
I'm with you. So then there's two factors you said
that um that pressure was had everything to do with
volcanic activity with eruptions, there's two um two factors, two
general factors that really have an effect on what kind
(13:45):
of volcanic. Volcanic eruption takes place, and that is viscosity,
which is I can never keep it straight, but now
I've got it. Viscosity is the ability to resist flow,
rightlid Right. If it's high viscosity, which means it has
a high ability to resist flow, which means it's thick stuff,
(14:06):
it's molasses. If it has a low ability to resist flow,
meaning you're pouring something out of a cup and creating flow.
If as a low ability, it's going to flow very
easily and quickly out of it. So it's low viscosity.
So viscosity and the amount of gas bubbles present are
going to determine what kind of volcanic eruption you have. Right.
If it's high viscosity, which means it's very thick, then
(14:27):
it will be a big eruption, right because it tried
very hard to get out exactly. And then the opposite
is true if it's a low viscosity and the more
gas is present, the more imagine just these little bubbles,
the more little bubbles that are trying to get out,
the higher the viscosity, the harder they're going to try
to get out, and then when they do get out, kaboom, right,
(14:49):
which is determined by how much silicon is in the magma,
which I thought it was a little weird or not weird,
but just I had no idea, So Chuck, we have.
Um when when it does go kaboom, that's called the
eruption column, right, it's composed of hot gas ash pyroclastic rocks,
which is lava in solid form. Right. Um. And that one,
(15:12):
that one flow I was talking about Hawaii, the real
slow kind of lumbering flow where's just bubbling over its effusive. Yeah,
and that I mean that's not super dangerous because it's
so slow, but it's still destructive eventually, Yeah, slowly destructive.
If you're a plant that's stationary, you're in trouble because
plants can't walk at all. Let's talk about the different
(15:33):
types of eruptions, man, Yeah, there's a bunch of these. Uh.
My favorite is a Strombolian. It's definitely the most delicious
for one reason and one reason alone. It's pretty impressive,
not too dangerous. About fifty feet in the air. It's
gonna be spewing a little short bursts, very highly viscous,
(15:56):
so gas really has to build up in order for
this to happen. But they're pretty the small eruptions, not
much lava going on, they make a big boom, yeah,
a little ashy tefra, which is always nice in your
volcanic eruption, right, and tefras that that fall in volcanic material.
A lot of things like uh, undergo a change in
name after they become after they've been a verb at
(16:19):
some point, so like it goes from magma to lava
to tefra. Yeah, right, and that's all rock or it depends.
It could be asked, tefra is just any of the
material that comes out of volcano and is landed. Oh
I thought you said originally it was all magma. That's
well yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're good, good chuck. Right.
(16:40):
And then we also have the plenty in eruption, right,
which the Yeah, this is the type of eruption that
covered that came out of Mountain Vesuvius and I think
and covered Herculaneum and Pompeii. Yeah, these are the big
daddies that you think of when you think of volcano.
The big upward thrust, the thirty mile column of junk
(17:02):
that is shooting out. That is the plenty in eruption,
right yeah. I mean it's bad news for anyone around there,
don't you think I would think so? Yeah, and not
even right around there. I mean, like it can shoot
pyroclastic material thirty miles into the air undred hundreds of
(17:23):
feet per second. That's a big explosion. Um and uh so,
I imagine I couldn't find it. Looked all over the
place to find out what type of eruption the Iceland
volcano underwent in April. It couldn't find it. But this
sounds a lot like a plenty in eruption. I mean,
if they were shutting down air service in like southern
Europe because of the ash that it entered the atmosphere.
(17:44):
From this, it sounds like it was probably plenty allans
I guess was to right, Yeah, basically all the ones
you can rattle off off the top of your head,
there's a probably plenty in volcan What about the Hawaiian
Those are the really slow effusive ones, right yeah. But
they have like fire fountains, like they're cool to look at,
yeah for sure, and it's cool sounding, yeah, And they
(18:05):
can produce a lava lakes which are ponds of lava craters.
Pretty cool. Yes, I've never been to Hawaii though, you
know Strickland has, Oh yes he has. He loves talking
about the Hawaiian eruptions ives butchering the Hawaiian names of
things too. Are those other ones smaller and less frequent?
The the volcanian, hydro volcanic, and fissure. Yeah, the most
(18:27):
common eruption types of the plenty in Hawaiian and Strombolian,
and then less common like the real. Like, if you're
an aficionado of of volcanoes, then you're gonna want to
know about the volcano and hydro hydro volcanic and fisher.
Like you said, the fisher has the curtain of fire.
It occurs along like a a trench. It's not like
a mountain. It's basically there's a tear in the earth
(18:51):
and the the magma is becoming lava and like this
big curtain of fire. I can't really call it anything
else in it be is dead on sure. The volcan
ian is cool because of the pyroclastic bombs that it
will shoot into the air, like football size bombs of
of hot rock. This is the Earth being angry. The
gods are awakening. Well, this is the other saying I'm
(19:14):
I'm moving around, dude. And then hydro volcanic compares a
little um explaining this is a volcano that it takes
place not underwater, but near water, near um, a very
high humidity area, and basically the interaction of the water
creates this chain reaction that turns the volcanic material into
this fine ash right Um. It can also melt a
(19:36):
lot of surrounding snow um, which can cause landslides and
a lot of trouble for people. Yes, so those are
the types of eruptions. Are you still awake and are
you still with this so far? Anyway? Right? People like, oh, yeah,
the sun. Uh should we talk about the shapes or
(19:59):
just the frequent the of eruption? Well, let's talk about
the shapes, because there's there's the basically, there's three components
to a volcano. Every volcano, right Um. You've got the
magma chamber, which we talked about, it's where it builds up.
You've got the central event, which is the the this
little connecting area, this is where it starts to. This
is the fissure that it comes out of the crater,
(20:21):
right you've got the summit crater, which is where it
explodes out of right, and then um, you've got different
types of volcanoes, three main shapes, and the strato volcanoes.
So a strato volcano with a plenty in eruption is
what everyone thinks of as a volcano, right, the classic
what what you would build for your science school project
with the baking soda. That's a strato volcano. That's right.
(20:44):
Unless you're a really forward thinking kid and you're like,
I'm going to build a scory of tone volcano for
extra points, which actually, if you did do that, you'd
be pretty smart, because, um, while the strato volcano is
the most familiar, the scory of cone volcano is the
most common. Yeah, I guess would be a very smart kid. Yes,
And if there's any seventh graders out there looking for
(21:04):
a cooler volcano, you want to add a little zing
your volcano, make a scory of cone and say, Josh
and Chuck, san't you and get prepared to be beaten
fire classmates. Score of cones, by the way, if you
need a little help, are Um, they're smaller, they're steep
on both sides, um, and they're very wide right, uh,
(21:25):
And they're usually composed of ashy tephra ashy telfra shield volcanoes,
that's the last kind. They're wide short, low viscosity dispersal
of lava. So it's just a big using blob basically,
and it builds up into like a shield like dome.
And these these are repped like every few years, very frequent.
(21:45):
So um, we'll talk about eruption a second. A good
example of a shield volcanoes Mounta Looa, and a good
example of a score of cone is Sunset Crater in Arizona.
Yeah all right, Chuck, Josh, you ever heard of Crater
Lake in Oregon? Yeah? Yeah, Gortis. Isn't there like a
down World War two plane or something in there? I
don't know. Is that just like a cloud Cussler novel
(22:07):
I'm thinking of? I have no idea. Well, Crater Lake
was actually in extinct. We imagine an extinct volcano. Um Basically,
the magma chamber blew it all at once, collapsed in
on itself. The the crater collapses in on itself and
it eventually fills in with water. It's called the caldera, yes,
until it's full of water. Then it's called the lake.
(22:28):
That's right. Once again, add something, change the name. How
many volcanoes are there active right now working in the
world today, I'm gonna guess four. You would be off
by about a hundred. What do you mean you're gonna
guess you have the same information I do. Let's trying
(22:48):
to mix it up. Uh, they are active volcanoes five
hundred around the world. And the classifications a little inexact,
even the revised classifications a little inexacutive. I didn't vers.
Here's why though. This is why it's inexact and subjective,
because we don't have anything that won't melt if we
try to really get a good look inside of a volcano. Yeah,
(23:12):
so it's all just kind of like, well, yeah, it's smoking,
so we're gonna call that an active volcano. The ones
in uh, there was at least one when we were
in Guatemala, remember, and then one went off right after
Jerry was there? Really I think, so yeah, wow, yeah,
we'll find out after we stopped recording an ASCAR. So
the classifications, even though it's inexact, we will quote them
(23:34):
here if it's erupting obviously or or demonstrating some kind
of activity within recorded history, right, then it's active. And
why we say it's inaccurate because recorded history varies big time. Uh.
If it is not showing any signs, but it has
erupted with years, then uh it is you know, could
(23:56):
potentially erupt again. So it's dormant, but it could could
go off. If it has not erupted in ten thousand years,
then it's extinct, they say, right, but I say, all
bets are off. Man, you never know. No, I agree wholeheartedly.
I think, Um, if you're dealing with plate tectonics and um,
there's clearly not any kind of magma chamber around that
(24:19):
we can detect, it probably is extinct. But as we said,
they have revised the the rating of volcanoes, right, Um,
so now if it's showing anything, is that what you
just did was the revised version, because they really are
similar to the original version. Basically. The only change is
now if it's showing anything, then it's it's active. Right. Yeah. Weird,
(24:45):
And uh here's the cool fact of the day. Right. Uh.
And any given day, ten volcanoes are erupting. Yeah, that
aren't a big deal. Probably, well they are if you're
staying next to Yeah, but it's not newsmakers, I would say. Yeah.
And then one volcano is thought to have wiped out
an entire civilization, Sanderini in Greece. Really yeah, the Minoan
(25:07):
civilization suddenly disappeared, and they're starting to think that it
was because they melted pretty much. Yeah, well, that's it
for volcanoes. If you want to see some really boss
volcano pictures, I know where you can just type volcanoes
into the search bar at how stuff works dot com.
You've made it through this one. Pay yourself on the back.
But hey, we've all got to understand volcanoes, right all right?
(25:28):
So yeah, okay, since I said search bar, that means
it's time for listener mail. So that is not only
the end of volcanoes, Josh, that's the end of this
is something else. Can you believe this? Can you believe?
I know you we're in the future like I thought.
I thought it'd be in like spaceships and have pill
(25:49):
meals that I could eat. I have pill meals in
my pocket right now. Really, what you got? I have
pot roasts and turkey and stuff. Did you add water
and it becomes a big meal. You just eat it,
you see, and it tastes like all that and get
pulled up. So uh, you know, at the end of
every year we like to say thanks. Obviously we're still
on the air, and we wouldn't be if you guys
(26:10):
weren't listening. No, we would be, you know, just doing
our regular thing right in the articles, crying ourselves, crying
ourselves to sleep. Yeah, thank you for listening to all
of you, a new people, all of you vets, all
of you returning friends, everybody. Happy New Year to all
of you very much. Um yeah, yeah, that's all I got.
I mean, I I don't want to make a big
(26:31):
deal out of it because I just want to keep
on going through. Here's to the next year and eleven
months in eleven days left of earth? Yeah right, you
want me to sing uh all anzig? Please? Can we
get can we get Jerry to put it over? Or
at leastly there's no rights on all at least Fogelberg's
same old Anzig the Satas song in history. Oh that
(26:53):
is a good one. Let's hear it shun oh no never,
but I do have listen to mail. Well do you
know an album that hear it on? Uh? The Innocent Age? Okay,
So do you. Was it a good album? Yeah, I
mean I actually owned that. I was a little kid.
I was like twelve listening to that song thinking it
was sad when I was the wealth and that's Dan
Fogelberg and uh it's what's the name, same old things
(27:14):
on and what's the album The Innocent Age the Seas.
So this is listener mail Josh from Kyle and this
(27:35):
is about our our Chronica podcast which we got some
pretty good marks from from our Jewish friends. Yeah, we
did here there, although I got good try. I had
a few people that are are converted Jews say, hey,
Chuck when he said it's not the same thing, that
really hurt my feelings. I wasn't saying for you, it's
not the same for me like I would I would
(27:56):
feel like a I would still feel like a boy.
So it's not the same for you. But in Chuck's
opinion of you, it's the same. Yeah, that's that doesn't
make you any less Jewish if you're if you've converted.
I wasn't saying that at all. I was a kid.
I don't want to hur anyone's feelings. Hey, guys, great
job on the Hanaka podcast. I'm a seventeen year old
from De Plaine, Illinois. It's the home of the McDonald's Museum,
(28:18):
right home of the first McDonald's. He says, I was
raised atheists my whole life until the fourth grade, when
I learned about religion, and as much as research a
fourth grader can do, I decided I wanted to be Jewish.
I love this guy in the fourth grade. He's like,
I want to be Jewish. That's pretty cool, and he
did it. I realized that in college and I didn't
(28:39):
do it. I ended up converting, being bar Mitzvoued, learned Hebrew,
and now plan on joining the Israeli Army. Wow, I heard.
I heard about this the real deal. I find it
to be an amazing religion, and I loved your podcast
on it. I just want to show you something you
might find interesting. None gimmal hey shin, which appear the
(29:00):
dradle in almost every country in the world nska dol
haya sham means a great miracle happened there, while in
Israel the Dradel says none gimmal hey hey, which means
a great miracle happened here. Cool. So in Israel they
have a different radel because it's like could happened here
and not there, as I've always found that interesting. Just
(29:21):
want to let you in. Thanks for the podcast. And
that is from Kyle the New Jew. I really think
Kyle was on MPR. I've heard an interview with somebody
who had converted in the US and was now like
going to Israel to join the Israeli army. Was a
young guy like that? Yeah, he was young dude. It
(29:41):
might be him. I wonder if it was, we'll have
to check it out. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah, he
should have come to us first, though, I agree whole
hard at time, he's making the rounds of the media
secure right hey, by the way, I mean that's what
he's saying to everybody, right, Yeah, I was on stuff
you should know and MPR. Right, well, chuck again. Happy
two thousand and eleven to you. Happy New Year. Congratulations
(30:03):
sir on another year making it through another year with
me having to deal with me. Hey, it's every year
gets easier. Is gonna be a breeze? Nice? Um. If
you have a New Year's resolution that you think is
worth writing down and sending to us, you can also
bring it up on Facebook. I'm sure there'll be plenty
of stuff there. You can tweet it to us s
y SK podcast um, and if you want to just
(30:26):
put it in an email. If you're a confidential type,
address it to Stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
that how stuff works dot com. To learn more about
the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper
right corner of our homepage. The house stuff Works iPhone
(30:47):
app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes, brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
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