From Volcanoes to Atolls: Science below a Disney/Pixar Short film

Image 1: Disney/Pixar®

Science, Hollywood, a smiling volcano…. What do those things have in common? The Disney/Pixar short film presented with Inside Out! Science in films is not often successful or “scientific”. Just have a look at 2012, The Core, Japan sinks, Volcano, Dante’s peak, and maybe many others. Therefore it is a nice surprise to see that there can be science below this recent short film called “Lava”.

This film tells the story of a volcanic island “in the middle of the sea”, from its active state to its extinction. It’s based on Big Island (Hawaii) and its evolution. I propose you have a look at the science of “Lava” just by following the lyrics.

How to reproduce inner Earth pressure and temperature in a laboratory

Earth’s inner structure.

Drilling allows us to collect samples from the inner Earth, which provide us an idea of its composition and internal hidden processes.The deepest scientific drilling on Earth reached 12.262 km into the crust (Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia), but what does it represent? The Earth has a radius of 6,378 km which is significantly greater than the 12 km of crust drilled at depth in Russia (Image 1). However it is extremely costly, time consuming, and for the moment there is no existing technology that would allow us to drill deep in the upper mantle (from 5 to 100 km deep). Therefore in order to complete our knowledge of Earth’s interior, geologists have to use different strategies, for example geophysical imaging. Another, less known possibility is experimental petrology, or “how to cook your own rocks”.