Stuff You Should Know - How Volcanoes Work

Episode Date: December 31, 2010

Volcanic eruptions are destructive and often newsworthy events, but why do they occur? What are volcanoes? In this episode, Josh and Chuck take a look (but not too close) at the forces at work behind Earth's geological "hotheads." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call,

like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant looking spry. Are you spry, Grandma? Here comes the sun. What? Here comes the sun. This reminds me of the sun podcast. Oh, yeah. I don't think it's going

to be nearly as bad. There's not nearly as much physics to it, especially not particle physics or spooky physics. It's pretty straightforward, really. It was very richly detailed, dense and structuring content. But really, if you break it down, volcanoes, well, that's what we're paid to do, Chuck, and that's what we are going to do. Let me do my intro first. Do you ever see Joe versus the volcano? One of my favorite all-time movies. All-time? Oh, yeah. Probably top five. I've seen it at least 12 times. It's so great. The pre-serious Tom Hanks best role. Yeah, I think so. Beats the Tire of Buzzing Buddies. I'm a big bachelor party guy. Are you really? Oh, yeah. But in this movie, he is sent to Wopani Woo, right? Which means Little Island with Big Volcano.

The Big Woo. Right. To jump into the Big Woo. Yeah. To basically appease the Woponies who need somebody to sacrifice himself into the volcano, to call them the volcano gods, so everything can keep going out, right? And they can keep drinking their orange soda, which they're famous for loving. Yes. Was it Fanta? I think it was Indie brand for the movie. So you remember then when he jumps in, what happens? I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but you remember what happens, right? Yeah. Okay. Chuck, do you realize that as of this week, we've reached a weird point in our life where we can explain what happened in that movie? Because it's not explained by the great John Patrick Shanley. He wrote and directed that. No. He didn't need it because

it's a movie. Yeah. But isn't that weird that we're sitting next to our other significant others watching this movie? We could turn to them and say, here's actually what happened. And this is the type of thing that just happened. Yeah. Of course, it really wouldn't happen that way, but we'll figure it out. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it because we've been chastised for spoiling like 30 year old movies before. In series that ended like 10 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Good series, though. E.T. phoned home. Let's talk about volcanoes and how they work. Josh, a volcano, a lot of people might say is a big mountain with a square top that's spits fire everywhere and kills people. I don't know about the square top. That is not true because

any place on the planet Earth where the Earth, the inner Earth leaks out into the outer Earth is a volcano. Wherever Earth gets a boo boo. Yeah. Exactly right. Yeah. So the Earth is composed of three. We should really just do the broad stroke basics real quick. The Earth is composed of three general mega layers, right? Yeah. You've got the thinnest layer, which is the outer crust, which is what we walk around on, which is the bottom of the ocean, that kind of thing. 20 to 44 miles deep on land and that sounds no on. Yes, you're right. That sounds super big, but that's actually really thin. So from its thinnest part at the bottom of the ocean is three miles down deep or thick up to, like you said, yeah, 44 miles, right? And then under that,

you've got the mantle, right? Yep. And then you have the inner core, which is where the inner core, the inner Earth people live, right? Yeah. The mantle is the biggest part, really, really hot, but not melty because of one word that is the key to all things volcano. Pressure. Pressure. Pressure. Anytime, like everything about volcanoes is pressure related, it seems like. It's, yes. Somehow. It's hot enough. So this mantle, it is solid, but it's so it's hot enough to melt, but the pressure is so great it can't melt. It can't be liquid. It's forced to stay in the solid form, right? Yeah. The other key thing that we need to, we need to touch on before we get into volcanoes is the continental drift theory, plate tectonics.

Yeah. Right? That there are at least seven large plates and some minor plates as well. Dessert plates. That are the outer crust that are moving over the mantle via the asthenosphere. And that's like this kind of liquid layer, this lubricating layer between the crust and the mantle, right? And then so anytime these boundaries, where these boundaries are, there's potential for volcanic activity, right? But that's not the all-encompassing explanation for volcanoes, right? That's right. There are several ways that volcanic activity can occur as far as plate tectonics goes. Let's cover those first, Chuckers. I'll take the first one. Okay. These plates can move away from each other sometimes, not necessarily toward each other.

They can move away. When they move away from each other, if you're, if it's over water, I'm sorry, underwater, under the water. Right. It's so specific. Sub-surface. Yeah, subsurface. Then that's an ocean ridge. If it's under the land, it's a continental ridge. Right. And these plates drift apart, and then the mantle all of a sudden doesn't have as much pressure, so it can actually melt finally, because it's so hot. Right. And then it bubbles up through the little cracks there. Then once it gets there, it gets cool, hardens again, forms an all-new crust, and kind of just fills up that gap. Exactly. And that's called spreading center volcanism. And that's where two plates are moving apart. Moving apart. Now, if you want to

talk about subduction zone volcanism, which I do, if you'll allow me, that's where two plates are moving together. And if you'll remember from the earthquake podcast, we covered a lot of this and that too. A subduction zone is where one where plates are pressing up against one another, and one is pushed under the other. Right. Yeah. This forms a trench, a hole in the earth. Big time. Okay. So with the spreading center volcanism, magma flowed out because of this, this lower pressure was allowed to go to its liquid form with subduction. We haven't said what magma is. That's liquid rock. Nice, Chuck. Very important. It is. This is what makes up the mantle for the most part as well. Yeah. Right. So this is the stuff that can, that is very hot,

but is under so much pressure it stays solid. Well, I think it becomes magma once it turns fluid. Okay. And then once, and here's the distinction between magma and lava. Once it exits the earth, it becomes lava. It's lava. Yeah. So go ahead. Okay. Nice one, Chuck. Good catch. Thank you. So with subduction zone volcanism, the magma, actually the melting point is lowered with the introduction of water. So either water enters the trench created by this subduction zone or ambient water from the rock around it enters it. Yeah. Or it's like squeezed out of it. Exactly. Yeah. So either way, this introduction of water lowers the melting point and allows this, the mantle to become magma as is its destiny. Right. So that's colliding and then shifting

under one another. Subduction. You can also collide and you just collide. You meet each other head on two plates collide. Right. And boom, you've got mountains, not volcanoes. Right. Right. But this is usually just a subduction zone that hasn't happened yet. Eventually one of them is probably going to slip under the other and butter boom, butter bang. But for the amount of time, that's just like a couple of rams. Yeah. And then you've got plates moving up against each other. I think that was a slip strike fault. Wasn't it in the earthquake podcast? I don't remember. I think it was where they're just like, one's going south and one's going north. Right. That forms a transform plate boundary and there's almost never volcanic activity. Right. There's

another way they can form. And this is kind of a cool one. Interplate or hotspot volcanic activity. Right. We should say that everything we just talked about, all of those were found along plate boundaries. Yeah. This is like within a solid plate. Right. Yeah. Within a plate, you can get a hotspot in the middle of it because the mantle basically forms a hot plume. It comes up from the bottom and gets hotter and hotter. And then it eventually reaches, you know, right underneath. I guess, I guess the lithosphere, I guess the lithosphere and creates a hotspot. And it's really an unusual heat. It forms magma right under the earth's crust. Right. And that stays there, but then the plates move over it. And as each plate moves over it, it forms a whole

string of little volcanoes, which is how the Hawaii volcanoes were created. Yeah. 70 million years old, by the way. Very old. This is a very slow process, but it is a process. If you sped it up really fast, you'd be like, Oh, okay. Yeah. This place moving over and that's, yeah, that's that hotspot volcano. Right. Yes. Interplate volcanic activity is what it's called. Yeah. And I think they point out that most of the land volcanoes are the subduction zone that you mentioned. And then the hot hotspot ones. Right. And then in the ocean, it's mostly the spreading center of volcanism, I believe. Yes. Right. Yes. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is

going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer for that. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the I heart radio app,

Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. We're going to use a dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it. And now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co stars, friends and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to block buster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friends beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy,

blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. So Chuck, we've got magma, right? Yeah. Or let's say we don't have magma. We have a mantle. Yeah. And then something happens. So this, this mantle shifts a little bit and starts to move upward. Right. Right. Um, something is something is given way to the, the downward pressure of the rocks surrounding it. And so this magma, which is hot, it's just under a lot of pressure. Right. And it wants to be liquid. It's less dense and it's able to move up. Yeah. The further it moves up, the less pressure there is. So it's just going to keep going upward and upward and upward.

Yeah. And that's how magma starts to move toward the earth's surface. Right. Yes. And one thing, I used to build ponds for a living. And one thing that is, uh, you'll find when you ever try to build a pond, water is very lazy and it wants to go to the path of least resistance. Liquids are right. So it will always find something you overlooked and cause a leak. Yeah. Same thing I imagine with lava or magma, it's liquid. So it's going through any cracker crevice that can find. And as long as the upward pressure created by the lower density of the magma is greater than the downward pressure of the surrounding rock, it'll keep going up. Yeah. But once there is enough pressure, like let's say it just kept going up and

eventually would spew out and you've got a volcano. But if there just happens to be enough pressure and it's like, no, stop, then it kind of has a little waiting zone in a magma chamber. Right. And it just fills up and it's like, I can wait 70 million years. Yeah. But it's waiting. Right. Don't, don't be mistaken, brother. It's there. There. That we just sounded like ZZ top. Jerry liked that one. I know. So Chuck, that explains how lava enters the earth's crust, holes in the earth's crust and creates what we'll talk about in a second, Hawaiian type volcanoes, Hawaiian type eruptions, I should say,

where basically the lava is just coming out, bubbling up over the surface and flowing real slowly. Right. Creating little lava ponds, right, in craters and stuff like this. Just, it's cool looking. Sure. Not very dangerous if you can walk at all. Yeah. I mean, it's slow. Right. Or even drag yourself slowly. You could probably beat the lava. Yeah. But the one that everybody wants to know about are eruptions, like the spectacular, like the Iceland volcano. Right. I'm not even going to attempt a pronunciation of this, which, by the way, costs at least $1.7 billion to the airlines alone and lost revenue. Really? Yeah. That was a straddle volcano, by the way. We'll talk about that in a minute.

Okay. Yes. But with a huge explosion, it's not just this lower density of the magma. No. It has to do with the gases inside. And magma is what magma eats, right? Yeah. And this is sort of like the, it reminds me of the Lake Nios exploding lakes. It's a build up of gas pressure internally within the magma. It's a lot of dissolved gas. And they're stuck that way, dissolved, which is all fine. And they're kept, you know, thanks to pressure, confined in there. But when the vapor pressure gets greater than the pressure surrounding it, it forms little vesicles, which are little gas bubbles. And then it's go time. And that's when, you know, you got some trouble because those bubbles,

they got to get out. It's like a soda can. It's exactly like, it's the exact same principle of a soda, right? So if you open a soda, all the bubbles rush to the top. And that's if it's just a regular old non shaken, touched it or anything. Yeah. If you shake it up, you're actually mixing those bubbles in with the liquid. So when those bubbles rush to the top, they're going to bring a lot of the liquid with them. This is the same exact principle that's behind a volcanic eruption. Okay. But in this case, magma is the soda. Exactly. Yeah. And the bubbles are the gases from the dissolved rock. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Right. Yeah. I'm with you. So then there's two factors. You said that, um, that pressure was had everything to do with volcanic activity. Sure. With eruptions, there's two, um, two factors, two general factors that really have an effect on what kind of volcanic volcanic eruption takes place. And that is viscosity, which is, I can never keep it straight, but now I've got it. Viscosity is the ability to resist flow. Right. Yeah. It's opposite of being fluid. Right. If it's high viscosity, which means it has a high ability to resist flow, which means it's thick stuff. It's molasses. Yeah. If it has a low ability to resist flow, meaning you're pouring something out of a cup

and creating flow as low billy, it's going to flow very easily and quickly out of it. So it's low viscosity. So viscosity and the amount of gas bubbles present are going to determine what kind of volcanic eruption you have, right? If it's a high viscosity, which means it's very thick, then it will be a big eruption. Right. Because it tried very hard to get out. Exactly. And then the opposite is true if it's a low viscosity. And the more gas is present, the more, imagine just these little bubbles, the more little bubbles there are trying to get out, the higher the viscosity,

the harder they're going to try to get out. And then when they do get out, kaboom. Right. Which is determined by how much silicon is in the magma, which I thought that was a little weird. Yeah. Or not weird, but just, I had no idea. So Chuck, we have, when it does go kaboom, that's called the eruption column, right? It's composed of hot gas, ash, pyroclastic rocks, which is lava in solid form. Yeah. Right. And that one, that one flow I was talking about in Hawaii, the real slow kind of lumbering flow where it's just bubbling over, it's effusive. Yeah. And that, I mean, that's not super dangerous because it's so slow, but it's still destructive.

Eventually, yeah. Slowly destructive. If you're a plant at stationary, you're in trouble. Because plants can't walk at all. Let's talk about the different types of eruptions, man. Yeah. There's a bunch of these. My favorite is the strumbolian. It's definitely the most delicious of all these eruptions. Purely, for one reason and one reason alone. It's pretty impressive, not too dangerous, about 50 to 100 feet in the air. It's going to be spewing little short bursts, very highly viscous.

So gas really has to build up in order for this to happen, but they're pretty small eruptions, not much lava going on. They make a big boom. Yeah. A little ashy tephra, which is always nice in your volcanic eruption. Right. And tephra is that, that fallen volcanic material. Yeah. A lot of things like undergo a change in name after they've become, after they've been a verb at some point.

Yeah. So like it goes from magma to lava to tephra. Yeah. Right. And that's all rock. Or it depends. It could be ash. Tephra is just any of the material that comes out of the volcano and is landed. Oh, I thought you said originally it was all magma. That's part, well, yeah.

Yes, you're right. You're right. You're good. Good chuck. All right. And then we also have the Plinian eruption, right? Which the Big Daddy. Yeah. This is the type of eruption that covered, that came out of Mount Vesuvius and I think 79 AD and covered Herculaneum and Pompeii. Yeah. These are the Big Daddies that you think of when you think of volcano,

the big upward thrust, the 30 mile column of junk that is shooting out. That is the Plinian eruption. Right. Sustained. That's the one you think of. Yeah. I mean, it's bad news for anyone around there. Don't you think? I would think so.

Yeah. And not even right around there. I mean, like it can shoot pyroclastic material 30 miles into the air. Hundreds of feet per second. That's a big explosion. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And so I imagine I couldn't find it. I looked all over the place to find out what type of eruption the Iceland volcano underwent in April.

Couldn't find it. Couldn't find it. But this sounds a lot like a Plinian eruption. I mean, if they were shutting down air service in like Southern Europe because of the ash that had entered the atmosphere from this, it sounds like it was probably Plinian. Mount T. Helens, I guess, was too, right? Oh, yeah.

Basically, all the ones you can rattle off off the top of your head is a probably Plinian volcano eruption. Strombolians don't make the news. No. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana.

Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm a prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly.

And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app,

Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. On the podcast, pay dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it. And now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it.

It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist?

So leave a code on your best friend's beeper, because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What about the Hawaiian? Those are the really slow, effusive ones, right?

Yeah, but they have, like, fire fountains. Like, they're cool to look at, for sure. And it's cool sounding. Yeah. And they can produce lava lakes, which are ponds of lava, craters. Pretty cool. Yes. I've never been to Hawaii, though.

Have you? No, Strickland has. Oh, yes, he has. He loves talking about the Hawaiian eruptions. He loves butchering the Hawaiian names of things, too. Are those other ones smaller and less frequent? The Volcanian, Hydro-Volcanic, and Fissure? Yeah, the most common eruption types are the Plinian, Hawaiian, and Strombolian.

Okay. And then less common, like, the real, like, if you're an aficionado of volcanoes, then you're going to want to know about the Volcanian Hydro-Volcanic and Fissure. Like you said, the Fissure has the curtain of fire. It occurs along, like, a trench. It's not like a mountain. It's basically there's a tear in the earth. Right.

And the magma is becoming lava and, like, this big curtain of fire. Wow. You can't really call it anything else and it'd be as dead on. Sure. The Volcanian is cool because of the pyroclastic bombs that it will shoot into the air. Like, football-sized bombs of hot rock. This is the earth being angry. Yeah.

The gods are awakening. Well, this is the earth saying, I'm moving around, dude. And then Hydro-Volcanic, it bears a little explaining. This is a volcano that takes place, not underwater, but near water, near a very high humidity area. And basically, the interaction of the water creates this chain reaction that turns the volcanic material into this fine ash, right? It can also melt a lot of surrounding snow, which can cause landslides, and a lot of trouble for people.

Indeed. Yes. So those are the types of eruptions. Are you still awake and are you still with us so far? Ready? What's this? Right, people are like, oh, yeah. Yeah, the sun.

Should we talk about the shapes or just the frequency of eruption? Well, let's talk about the shapes, because there's basically three components to a volcano, every volcano, right? Yeah. You've got the magma chamber, which we talked about. It's where it builds up. Yep. You've got the central vent, which is this little connecting area.

This is where it starts to, this is the fissure that it comes out of. Yeah, connects the chamber to the crater. Right, you've got the summit crater, which is where it explodes out of, right? Yes. And then you've got different types of volcanoes, three main shapes, and the stratovolcanoes. So a stratovolcano with a plenty of eruption is what everyone thinks of as a volcano, right? The classic, what you would build for your science school project with the baking soda, that's a stratovolcano.

That's right. Unless you're a really forward-thinking kid and you're like, I'm going to build a scoria-tone volcano for extra points. Which actually, if you did do that, you'd be pretty smart because while the stratovolcano is the most familiar, the scoria-tone volcano is the most common. Yeah, I guess that would be a very smart kid. Yes. And if there's any seventh graders out there looking for a cooler volcano,

yeah, if you want to add a little zing to your volcano, make a scoria cone and say, Josh and Chuck sent you. Yeah, and get prepared to be beaten by your classmates. Scoria cones, by the way, if you need a little help are, they're smaller, they're steep on both sides, and they're very wide, right? Yes. And they're usually composed of ashitefra. Ashitefra.

Shield volcanoes, that's the last kind. They're wide, short, low viscosity dispersal of lava. So it's just a big oozing blob, basically, and it builds up into like a shield-like dome. And these erupt like every few years, very frequently. So we'll talk about eruptions in a second. A good example of a shield volcano is Mount Oloa and a good example of a scoria cone is Sunset Crater in Arizona. Yeah. All right.

Chuck. Josh. You ever heard of Crater Lake in Oregon? Yeah. Yeah. It's gorgeous. Yeah, isn't there like a Down World War II plane or something in there? I don't know.

Or is that just like a Clive Cussler novel I'm thinking of? I have no idea. Well, Crater Lake was actually an extinct, we imagine, an extinct volcano. Basically, the magma chamber blew it all at once, collapsed in on itself. The crater collapses in on itself, and it eventually fills in with water. Yeah, it's called a caldera. Yes. Until it's full of water, then it's called a lake.

That's right. Once again, add something, change the name. How many volcanoes are there active right now working in the world today? I'm going to guess 400. You'd be off by about 100. 300? 500. What do you mean you're going to guess you have the same information I did?

I was trying to mix it up. They are active volcanoes, 500 around the world, and the classification's a little inexact. Even the revised classification's a little inexact. I didn't see much of the difference, actually. Here's why, though. This is why it's inexact and subjective, because we don't have anything that won't melt if we try to really get a good look inside of a volcano. Yeah.

So it's all just kind of like, well, yeah, it's smoking. So we're going to call that an active volcano. Remember the ones in, there was at least one when we were in Guatemala, remember? Yeah. And one went off right after Jerry was there. Oh, really? I think so, yeah. Oh, wow.

Yeah. We'll find out after we stop recording and ask her. Okay. So the classifications, even though it's inexact, we will quote them here. If it's erupting, obviously you're demonstrating some kind of activity. Within recorded history. Right. Then it's active.

And while we say it's inaccurate, it's because recorded history varies. Yeah. Big time. If it is not showing any signs, but it has erupted. Within the last 10,000 years. Then it is, you know, could potentially erupt again. So it's dormant, but it could go off. If it has not erupted in 10,000 years, then it's extinct, they say.

Right. But I say all bets are off, man, you never know. No, I agree wholeheartedly. I think if you're dealing with plate tectonics and there's clearly not any kind of magma chamber around that we can detect, it probably is extinct. But as we said, they have revised the rating of volcanoes. Yeah. So now if it's showing anything, is that what you just did with the revised version?

Because they really are similar to the original version. Basically, the only change is now if it's showing anything, then it's active. Right? Yeah. And here's the cool fact of the day, right? And any given day, 10 volcanoes are erupting. Yeah. That aren't a big deal, probably.

Well, they are if you're staying the next time. Yeah, but it's not newsmakers, I would say. Yeah, and then one volcano is thought to have wiped out an entire civilization, Sandorini in Greece. Really? Yeah, the Minoan civilization suddenly disappeared and they're starting to think that it was because They melted? Pretty much.

Yeah. Well, that's it for volcanoes. If you want to see some really boss volcano pictures, I know where you can. Just type volcanoes into the searchbar at howstuffworks.com. If you made it through this one, pay yourself on the back. But hey, we've all got to understand volcanoes, right? I think so, yeah. Okay.

Since I said search bar, that means it's time for listener mail. So that is not only the end of volcanoes, Josh. That's the end of 2010. That is something else. Can you believe this? Can you believe another year? We're in the future. 2010, I thought I'd be in spaceships and have pill meals that I could eat.

I have pill meals in my pocket right now, if you want. Really? Sure. What you got? I have pot roast. Nice. And turkey and stuff. You add water and it becomes a big meal or you just eat it.

Just eat it. And it tastes like all that and gets filled up. Yeah. Nice. So, you know, at the end of every year, we like to say thanks, obviously. We're still on the air. And we wouldn't be if you guys weren't listening. No.

We would be, you know, just doing our regular thing right in the articles. Crying ourselves to sleep. Crying ourselves to sleep. Yeah, thank you for listening to all of you. Absolutely. All of you new people, all of you vets, all of you returning friends, everybody. Happy New Year to all of you. Very much.

Yeah. Yeah, that's all I've got. I mean, I don't want to make a big deal out of it because I just want to keep on going through 2011. Yeah. 2012. Well, we're not going anywhere. Here's to the next year and 11 months. Yeah.

In 11 days left of Earth. Yeah. Right. You want me to sing Old Anxion? Please. Can we get Jerry to put it over? Surely there's no rights on Old Anxion. Or at least Fogelberg's same Old Anxion?

Let's hear it. The saddest song in history? Oh, that is a good one. Let's hear it, Chuck. Oh, no. Never. But I do have listener mail. Well, do you know what album that appeared on?

The Innocent Age. Okay. So do you, was it a good album? Yeah. I mean, I actually owned that. I was a little kid. I was like 12 listening to that song thinking it was sad when I was 12. That's Dan Fogelberg.

Yes. And it's, what's the name? Same Old Anxion. And what's the album? The Innocent Age. Okay. Uh, so this is listener mail Josh from Kyle. And this is about our, our Conica podcast.

Yeah. Which we got some pretty good marks from, from our Jewish friends. Yeah, we did. Here, there. Although I will say- We got a good try. I had a few people that are, are converted. Jews say, hey Chuck, when you said it's not the same thing that really hurt my feelings.

Yeah. I wasn't saying for you, it's not the same for me. Like I wouldn't, I would feel like a, I would still feel like a goi. So it's not the same for you, but in Chuck's opinion of you, it's the same. Yeah. That's, that doesn't make you any less Jewish if you're, if you've converted. I wasn't saying that at all. Yeah.

So I want to clear that up. I was kidding. Don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Hey guys, great job on the Hanukkah podcast. I'm a 17 year old from Declane, Illinois. It's the home of the McDonald's Museum, right? Home of the first McDonald's. Yeah.

That's what he says. Nice. I was raised eighth as my whole life until the fourth grade when I learned about religion. And as much as research a fourth grader can do, I decided I wanted to be Jewish. I love this guy. In the fourth grade, he was like, I want to be Jewish. That's pretty cool. And he did it.

I realized that in college and I didn't do it. Right. I ended up converting being Bar Mitzvah to learn Hebrew and now plan on joining the Israeli army. Wow. I heard about this. The real deal. I find it to be an amazing religion. And I loved your podcast on it.

I just want to show you something you might find interesting. Nun-Gimel-Hei-Shin, which appeared on the dreidel in almost every country in the world, Nes-Gadal-Hayasham means a great miracle happened there. While in Israel, the dreidel says Nun-Gimel-Hei-Hei, which means a great miracle happened here. Cool. So in Israel, they have a different dreidel because it's like, it happened here, not there. I've always found that interesting. Just want to let you in.

Thanks for the podcast. And that is from Kyle, the new Jew. I really think Kyle was on NPR. I heard an interview with somebody who had converted in the U.S. and was now like going to Israel to join the Israeli army. Was it a young guy like that? Yeah, he was youngish. Dude, it might be him.

I wonder if it was. We'll have to check it out. That'd be pretty cool. Yeah. He should have come to us first, though. I agree wholeheartedly. He's making the rounds of the media circuit, right? Hey, by the way, no, I mean, that's what he's saying to everybody.

Right. Yeah, I was on stuff you should know and NPR. Right. Well, Chuck, again, happy 2011 to you. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Congratulations, sir, on another year, making it through another year with me, having to deal with me. Hey, it's every year gets easier.

2011 is going to be a breeze. Nice. If you have a New Year's resolution that you think is worth writing down and sending to us, you can also bring it up on Facebook. I'm sure there'll be plenty of stuff there. You can tweet it to us, S-Y-S-K podcast. And if you want to just put it in the email, if you're a confidential type, address it to stuffpodcastathowstuffworks.com.

Our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app,

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