[explosion] If that seems like a volcano, well, you’re almost right. It’s an experimental re-creation of what happens sometimes when cold water meets hot lava in a real volcano. Researchers at the University at Buffalo created this explosion, and lots of others, and they did it to study one of the dangers of volcanic eruption. They did the experiments out in the country about 40 miles south of Buffalo. The first step was to make homemade magma, and they did that by heating chunks of basalt. That’s essentially ancient magma now found in quarries. The rock they used was formed in volcanoes 70 million years ago. They heated the basalt for four hours. They brought it to a temperature of 2,400 degrees — that would melt many metals like silver and gold and do unimaginable damage to human skin, if, somehow it spilled. For that reason, the researchers suited up with protective gear, as you can see. They poured the homemade lava into a container fitted with heat-resistant steel tubes. Those tubes would allow the researchers to inject water into the molten rock. They did that remotely for obvious reasons. Sometimes, the water set off an explosion. But sometimes, they needed a swinging sledgehammer to trigger the lava bomb. The combination of homemade explosions and sophisticated video analysis turns out to be a good method for studying this process. Oh, and they recorded some really great explosions. Next up, more research using the same method because there’s no question about the value of knowing more about lava bombs. And it’s a lot safer to study a barrel of homemade magma than to get near a live volcano.