Deep beneath your feet
is a subterranean melting pot.
A fiery inferno
ready to boil over at any moment.
Anywhere
or anytime.
Imagine that today is the day
the ground beneath your feet gave way,
and the Earth’s crust rips open.
Giant rifts cause unparalleled destruction,
and city streets are covered
in scorching lava.
Things are about to get a little toasty.
Our planet is geologically active.
The bad news is, we can’t tell when,
or where, something called
a large igneous province
(or LIP) could form.
LIPs are geological features formed
when a massive amount of magma
flows onto the Earth’s surface.
This can result in regional-scale uplift,
continental rifting,
breaking up the ground,
and climate changes.
LIPs do some major spring cleaning,
but their house is the Earth itself.
Most of us know about an asteroid
hitting the Earth and wiping out the dinosaurs,
but most people don’t know that
the Earth nearly got devastated
by a large igneous province
that formed in Siberia 250 million years ago.
Now, imagine that we had to deal with
a colossal LIP like that today.
Urban areas would be decimated by the rift,
causing extensive destruction.
And those quakes?
They're just the preview.
Next, the lava makes its grand entrance.
Once here, it’s on the warpath.
Farmland needed for raising crops
would be incinerated.
Bodies of water like lakes, streams and rivers
would be vaporized if there was enough lava.
And depending on how fast the lava flows,
endangered species would be wiped out
if they couldn't relocate in time.
It would also devastate the economy.
Schools, businesses and hospitals
would be ravaged,
along with infrastructure like highways,
power generating facilities,
gas lines and water mains.
And that beautiful new house you bought?
It's covered in lava.
Your new car?
It's under lava.
And what about you?
Well, according to Oregon State University,
lava moves on a flat slope,
like Hawaii’s Mount Kilauea,
at a maximum of 10 km/h (6.2 mph).
The average speed people walk at
is 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
and average running speed is about
13 km/h (8 mph).
So if you were good at track and field,
now's your time to shine.
Lava flowing downhill,
like Mount Nyiragongo,
can speed along at
100 km/h (62 mph).
Good luck outrunning that.
In addition to the extreme heat
burning, melting, and destroying
anything it touches,
lava releases particles into the air
and toxic gases such as
sulfur, carbon dioxide and halogen.
Even if you can get out of the lava's path,
you’re still in danger from breathing the gas
and particles in the air.
How long can you hold your breath?
So with all that,
Well, there’s no how-to manual or strategy
to combat the formation of an LIP.
How and when they form
is a pretty complex subject,
requiring a lot of scientific disciplines
to understand.
But, it’s not like it’s really going to happen,
right?
Well, it’s definitely possible.
In 2018, Mount Kilauea in Hawaii erupted
and destroyed more than 700 homes.
Now, Kilauea is a volcano
rather than a large igneous province,
but it makes it clear that magma
is still flowing to Earth’s surface,
and there’s plenty more down
in the Earth’s core and mantle.
So, maybe we should start planning for it.
There are procedures in place to deal with
volcanic eruptions and earthquakes,
so why can’t there be one for LIP’s?
Our planet is going to continuously
shift and change forever.
It makes us wonder what other mysteries
could be brought to the surface
with these geological shifts.
What if the entire planet was cut in half?