You thought of it as a great idea.. Yea me too. We've always been listening, everything melts in lava. Then why not burn our garbage in it! It will not pollute the soil neither the seas and other river bodies. Animals will be safe from hazardous materials. It is actually a great ideas isn't it. But scientifically it's a horrible one. I'll explain why.
β’ Firstly, it is difficult to reach near volcanoes because our settlements are at safe places. It would require time and transportation to reach there. Which would cost money too.
β’ For dumping waste we need an active volcano, which are 1500 around the world. But do you think it is safe to go near an active volcanoπ. Think again.
β’ We need a specific type of volcano for this purpose, which is shield volcano, as the lava from such volcanoes flows slowly without jumping much into the air.
β’ But even this type of volcano could be dangerous as the amount to be thrown is in tons. Approximately 1300000000 tons, that is equal to 2.6 trillion pounds. (I know you skipped the zeroes π)
β’ To dump garbage the vent of the volcano is to be reached.. Not much difficult isn't it, but in reality the vent of volcano is a treacherous environment full of poisonous gases and yea lava splatters too.
β’ Things get worse when we start to throw stuff inside. I'll give you a real life example:
In 2002 Ethiopian researchers threw a 30 kg bag of trash into a volcano and the below pictures shows us the result.
The problem is that, if we pierce the lava surface with something cold, ( I don't mean ice here) anything of a lesser temperature than the lava that is below 1KΒ° celsius, chain reactions of explosions involving pressurised and acidic steam would take place.
Now if we throw trash of the entire world in it imagine the consequences and the lava splatters too, that would come up like a fountain. The lava will fly out at a huge height and obviously kill the employees appointed for this work and demolish their vehicles used for transportation.
β’ The Lava will splatter out more than the trash we would throw in it.
β’ There is a lot of boiling and exploding before melting stuff in lava.
β’ Don't forget about the air pollution that would be caused by burning.
I guess I've managed to explain you why such great idea can not be executed.
Enjoyed reading it? Please make sure you like it. I would love to hear from you in the comments. Corrections are welcome.
Thank you.
