10 Huge Disaster Movies That Scientists Called Bullsh*t (And Why)

4. Lava Does Not Move At Movie Speeds - Dante's Peak (1997)

The Disaster: Stubborn volcanologist Dr Harry Dalton is called upon to investigate suspicious volacanic activity at Dante's Peak, Washington, a small town celebrating the anniversary of its foundation. When he arrives he discovers two badly burned swimmers dead in a lake near the volcano, leading him to believe that the supposedly dormant Old Smokey has woken up. After losing his wife in a volcanic eruption four years earlier, he calls for an immediate evacuation of the town to avoid a repeat tragedy, something the townspeople resist until it is too late. Why It's Bullshit: Dante's Peak contains fewer scientific inaccuracies than most disaster movies, though there are a few niggling mistakes that ruin the film for volcano-heads everywhere. The initial eruption looks pretty impressive, and is actually a very realistic example of a plinian volcanic eruption, with a column that rises a several kilometres into the sky. Plinian eruptions are the biggest and baddest kind of eruption that a volcano can undergo, though they only happen under certain conditions. Volcanoes capable of a plinian eruption must have a particular type of magma, either andesite or rhyolite. These varieties of magma produce a lava that flows neither fast nor far, so it's unlikely that it would gush down the side of Dante's Peak at high speed, engulfing houses as it goes. It's also unlikely that a self-respecting volcanologist would attempt to drive through lava, given that your tires would last seconds and your gas tank would meet with a substance that reaches 1000°C. That's a big no-no.