Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

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ravenbluemoon
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Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by ravenbluemoon »

Iceland has had the fortune to have had a fairly interesting yet fairly "safe" volcano form within spitting distance of Reykjavik over the last few months. So far it has been filling up a few desolate valleys and providing some excitement to visitors.

However as the valleys fill up, there is now the concern that the lava will start flowing south, towards the sea. Problem is, one of the main roads along the coast is in the way, and along with it various utilities. Engineers haven't quite worked out what to do for the best, especially as there's a major fibre optic cable running along the road.

The latest proposal is to create a bridge on the road... but not the way round in which you'd expect. They want to build a bridge over the road, create some embankments, and channel the lava flow OVER the road :shock:

It's quite a novel idea, which would create an interesting attraction in itself. There's an English article on the Reykjavik Grapevine (with a graphic): https://grapevine.is/news/2021/06/29/sa ... T-ovSDUboY and there's a few other articles out there if your browser can deal with translating Icelandic.
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Bryn666
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by Bryn666 »

I've heard stupider ideas. Will the lava need some flowsignals?
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by Vierwielen »

In other words, a "cut-and-cover" tunnel, but without the "cut" phase.
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by Big L »

Is it April 1st again already?
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by Piatkow »

I think that somebody may have been taking their "science" from some of the disaster movies shown in the afternoon on the Horror Channel.
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by Fenlander »

So what happens after the first flow sets and the (presumably channelised) bridge is then full of lava that’s set?
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by KeithW »

Fenlander wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 14:04 So what happens after the first flow sets and the (presumably channelised) bridge is then full of lava that’s set?
With very fluid lava what typically happens is that the outer skin hardens first while the remainder of the flow passes through leaving a lava tube or in this case channel. Here s an example from Iceland.

Image
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by rhyds »

Silly question, but how "lava proof" is your average slab of reinforced concrete anyway? Especially one done in a bit of a rush in a country with few cement/concrete plants?
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by Bryn666 »

rhyds wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:16 Silly question, but how "lava proof" is your average slab of reinforced concrete anyway? Especially one done in a bit of a rush in a country with few cement/concrete plants?
Not silly at all - the concrete itself should be fine, it's joints and reinforcement that use steel that is affected by heat transfer where the issue is most likely. Lava's bigger problem is the sheer weight of it rather than the temperature when it comes to interaction with other rocks.

That said, here's lava interacting with a can of coke: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaSjwAu3yrI ; the can initially survives but the liquid contents are superheated and ejected out of the side as a result of heat deformation allowing steam to escape before the can is swallowed whole.

Hollywood has taught anyone who isn't a volcanologist some weird and very wrong things about lava.
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by jervi »

How much research has been done on lava's behaviour and interactions with concrete.
As Bryn says the main issue would be the weight of the lava, but also how would the lava cooling down and hardening into rock effect the bridge. Would it help support, or just put more weight onto it?

Its not a terrible idea, to protect utilities, however to run traffic with living humans through it is questionable.
Although I'd imagine general traffic would be prohibited during live lava flows except in emergencies.
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by KeithW »

jervi wrote: Sun Jul 04, 2021 05:16 How much research has been done on lava's behaviour and interactions with concrete.
As Bryn says the main issue would be the weight of the lava, but also how would the lava cooling down and hardening into rock effect the bridge. Would it help support, or just put more weight onto it?

Its not a terrible idea, to protect utilities, however to run traffic with living humans through it is questionable.
Although I'd imagine general traffic would be prohibited during live lava flows except in emergencies.
I would expect that to be the case. The bridge is I think more to prevent the road being destroyed than to allow its use during an eruption.
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Re: Icelanders Consider Lava Bridge Over Road

Post by Bryn666 »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7dgI0UwqVk

Looking at this small wonder they're considering any option available.
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