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

3. A Volcano In L.A. Is Impossible - Volcano (1997)

The Disaster: When a devastating earthquake leaves Los Angeles reeling, head of Emergency Management Mike Roark returns early from his vacation to help with the city's response to the crisis, though what he doesn't realise is that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. One person that is fully aware of the impending danger is geologist Amy Barnes, who suspects that a volcano may be forming beneath the city. After her suspicions are confirmed, the pair must team up to divert the flow of molten lava before it burns LA to the ground. Why It's Bullshit: Volcano was Armageddon to Dante Peak's Deep Impact, in that it came out within months of its counterpart and just managed to edge it out in terms of scientific inaccuracy. Because there is a tectonic boundary (the aforementioned San Andreas fault) running under California, LA might seem as likely a place as any for a volcano to suddenly form and wreak havoc. In fact, a number of volcanoes exist all across the margins of the Pacific Ocean, known collectively as the Ring of Fire. Could another one really be lurking under the stars on Hollywood Boulevard? No, it couldn't. The San Andreas fault is what is known as a strike-slip fault, meaning that the plates in question (the Pacific plate and the North American plate, in case you were wondering) simply slide against one another. A volcano will only form over a subduction zone - a spot in which one plate slides under its neighbour, deforming the ocean floor and freeing magma to move to the surface. There is no subduction going on under LA, and a volcano there simply isn't possible.