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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 05/02/97 -- Vol. 15, No. 44
MT Chair/Librarian:
Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 908-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 908-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 908-957-6330 rlmitchell1@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433 908-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Backissues at http://www.geocities.com/~ecl.
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-933-2724 for details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society
meets on the third Saturday of every month in Belleville; call
201-432-5965 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
1. URL of the week: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov. US Geologic Survey
home page. Lots of info about volcanoes. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. On my trip to Japan I was looking around the plane at all the
product placements and ads you see. It is getting as bad as going
to a movie. In fact even the films you see on the flights had
product placements. It used to be you got dinner on the plane and
they would sort of hide whatever brand name products they were
using. After all, they got nothing out of showing you that you
were eating Kraft cheese. Then someone at the airline asked
themselves why not see if they could get the stuff cheaper if they
left the brand names on it. Now everything you get has a brand
name. You get Anheuser-Busch pretzels, Evian water, odd brand
names that you never heard of for the cookies, Scott tissue in the
bathroom.
Before and after the movie they now have little short films to keep
you entertained. And dog-gone-it every one is an ad for some
company trying to sell you something. One of the things they had
was a look at film special effects created by Silicon Graphics.
They did effects for films like INDEPENDENCE DAY and TWISTER. Now
I don't know why anyone would brag about the effects in TWISTER.
From a distance you can get a good enough effect by showing just a
woman's stocking the way they did in THE WIZARD OF OZ. By the time
you get near a tornado it just looks like a windy day. There just
was not enough to be all that impressive in TWISTER.
They showed a piece from SPACE JAM, a new film combining Warner
Brothers cartoon characters with live-action basketball players
defending the earth against basketball players from outer space.
That seems to me like bragging that you made the bolts for the
Tacoma Narrows Bridge. According to them "this is the future of
film-making." I have been feeling somewhat depressed since I heard
that. I am really afraid that with falling educational standards
in this country he may well be right. It would be nice for
Hollywood to get back to films where the interesting effects are in
the writing just like it would be nice to get back to music where
the effects are created by the composer and not the technology, but
I see neither in the offing. There is both a falling supply and a
falling demand for good writing and composing. It is easy to
decide we want another SPACE JAM and turn the crank to get it. You
cannot say next year we will have another film like A MAN FOR ALL
SEASONS. If you try to turn the crank for that you will fail
miserably. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. DANTE'S PEAK (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: This is a disaster film that has
nearly everything going for it but plot-
originality. But for a couple of nice touches
in the scenario, it is very much the story the
viewer expects. However, with the exception of
a few exaggerated scenes, this is pretty much
what volcanoes really do. For me that makes
DANTE'S PEAK the volcano film to see this
spring. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) Spoiler
Warning: Following the review is an excerpt
from a U.S. Geological Survey response to the
film DANTE'S PEAK. While it will certainly
reveal in advance events of the film, it also
enhances the viewing experience by allowing the
reader then appreciate the film with an
educated palate.
New York Critics: 2 positive, 13 negative, 5
mixed
When I see a historical film I ask myself whether it is a good
story and whether it is accurate to history. Similarly when I see
a disaster film, particularly one in which the menace is caused by
something scientific, I ask myself is it a good story and is it
scientifically accurate. I tend to weigh the latter as important
much more than most people since for me a good deal of the value of
the film is to show me something that could happen to me. I can
escape into a film much better if I think that what I am seeing is
reasonably possible. Well, DANTE'S PEAK deserves only very
lukewarm interest for its story, which is in large respects a very
off-the-shelf disaster film plot. For me, however, a big plus is
that most of the time it was not really very far from scientific
accuracy. There are a few unrealistic scenes (most I recognized
from having read the FAQ included below), but for the most part the
film was fairly believable.
DANTE'S PEAK opens with a scene in a volcanic eruption. The force
of the eruption has nature reversed in some fundamental ways. The
sky is blotted out and flaming rocks are falling, seemingly from
the clouds. Volcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) has
allowed himself to get to close to the eruption he was studying and
it paying the price. This is four years before the action of the
story, but it effectively conveys the Biblical doomsday feel that
is associated with being caught too near a volcanic eruption. A
few years later he still works for the U.S. Geological Survey when
he is asked to take a look at some seismic activity in a place
called Dante's Peak, Washington. Even he points out that it is a
cornball name for a volcanic mountain. This place was just voted
to be the second best small town in the country. Shortly after he
arrives Dalton decides that small town number three is due for a
promotion and this region which has not seen an active volcano
since some time about 5000 BC may be ready to go active again.
It will come as no surprise to the viewer that Dalton's suspicions
are well-founded and the volcano does indeed erupt. The plot
follows the familiar disaster film formulae of disagreement over
whether there real is a threat to the small town, with Dalton's
supervisor (Charles Hallahan) unwilling to commit to believing an
eruption is coming. Having been involved with the politics of
having called a false alarm in the past, he wants to avoid at all
costs a false alarm here. But the cost turns out to be high with
many people caught in the town at the time of the disaster. Once
the eruption comes there are familiar sequences of people getting
into danger and of rescue. But at least the threats are relatively
realistic for the eruption as are the numbers of people killed.
There are some nice touches in the script. There are financial
reasons for the citizens of Dante's Peak to want to ignore the
warnings. However the townspeople, led by town mayor Rachel Wando
(Linda Hamilton of TERMINATOR), are smarter than townspeople
usually are in disaster films. If the U.S. Geological Survey says
it is time to go, they seem ready enough. The film is much more
about the USGS team's wrangling to decide if they feel the mountain
is really going to go. That seems fully believable. Much of what
we see seems realistic, even at the expense of some visual
excitement. The sky is darkened and ash is falling so it looks a
lot like a dismal snowy day. One scene that does seem to be driven
by the effects rather than logic shows elevated highway just
outside this tiny isolated town. The special effects work is very
convincing particularly in a flood scene near the end. There is a
somewhat contrived setting near the end of the film. I might
almost believe it would be there, but that the ELF would work from
there seems unlikely.
The makers of other recent disaster films could take a lesson from
DANTE'S PEAK. Unlike VOLCANO or JURASSIC PARK characters you get
to know and get to like do not survive. There is some risk in
killing off a good character, but it maintains the dramatic tension
of the film and keeps the story realistic. The team sent from the
U.S. Geological Survey actually look like a team of people that the
USGS might send, not a bunch of attractive young actors. Other
nice touches in the script include the fact there is no human
villain. You would think that a film with a volcano does not need
a human villain, but the makers of a major film like OUTBREAK, for
example, felt necessary to put in a human to defeat as well as the
title threat.
While the story values are weaker than they might be, DANTE'S PEAK
is a good cinematic recreation of what it must be like to
experience an erupting volcano. It is certainly the better of the
two volcano films being released this spring. Not a great film but
worth a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler... Spoiler...
Spoiler... Spoiler...
The following is an excerpt from the U.S. Geological Survey web
site at http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/News/
DantesPeak/dantes_peak.html. I am very pleased that the U.S.
Geological Survey created this information page, as I think it much
enhances the enjoyment of the film and also sets the record
straight where the film strayed from accuracy. There are
references to the film throughout the site, thought this section
most directly discusses the science of DANTE'S PEAK.
DANTE'S PEAK FAQ'S (frequently asked questions)
U.S. Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program February 10, 1997
MOVIE FACT OR FICTION?
Q: Is the eruption depicted in Dante's Peak realistic?
A: In many but not all respects, the movie's depiction of eruptive
hazards hits close to the mark, especially as regards the enormous
power unleashed during an eruption. Stratovolcanoes in the Cascade
Range and Alaska erupt explosively and produce pyroclastic flows,
clouds of volcanic ash, and debris flows (lahars) that behave much
as shown in the movie. Lava flows at these volcanoes, though, are
usually thick and slow moving, unlike the fluid flows in the movie.
Fast-flowing flows of basalt lava are common in Hawaii, though.
Real eruptions may be considerably larger or smaller, and affect
larger or smaller areas, than those shown in the film.
Q: Can eruptions really threaten helicopters, as in the movie, and
other aircraft?
A: Yes. Encounters between aircraft and clouds of volcanic ash are
a serious concern. Jet engines and other aircraft components are
vulnerable to damage by fine, abrasive volcanic ash, which can
drift in dangerous concentrations hundreds of miles downwind from
an erupting volcano.
During the past 15 years, at least 80 aircraft have accidentally
encountered volcanic ash clouds, and in 6 cases jet engines
temporarily lost power. An international consortium of government
agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, Federal Aviation
Administration, and National Weather Service, is now monitoring
ash-producing volcanoes and tracking volcanic ash clouds to reduce
the likelihood of future encounters.
Q: Can the temperature of hot springs near a restless volcano
change quickly enough to injure bathers?
A: Temperature changes can and do occur, but usually more slowly
than shown in the movie. In fact, the temperature of hot springs
may increase, decrease, or stay the same during volcanic unrest.
Increases in water temperature, when they do occur, usually take
days or weeks to develop, rather than a few seconds as shown in the
movie.
In rare cases, earthquakes can suddenly disrupt a volcano's hot
groundwater system, changing its temperature. And earthquakes have
been known to temporarily increase the flow of water from hot
springs, sometimes causing geyser-like activity that could threaten
bathers.
Q: Do earthquakes large enough to collapse buildings and roads
accompany volcanic eruptions?
A: Not usually. Earthquakes associated with eruptions rarely exceed
magnitude 5, and these moderate earthquakes are not big enough to
destroy the kinds of buildings, houses, and roads that were
demolished in the movie. The largest earthquakes at Mount St.
Helens in 1980 were magnitude 5, large enough to sway trees and
damage buildings, but not destroy them. During the huge eruption of
Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, dozens of light to
moderate earthquakes (magnitude 3 to 5) were felt by several
hundred thousand people. Many houses collapsed, but not primarily
because of the shaking. Heavy, wet ash from the eruption and a
hurricane accumulated on roofs and crushed them.
Stronger earthquakes sometimes DO occur near volcanoes as a result
of tectonic faulting. For example, four magnitude 6 earthquakes
struck Long Valley caldera, California, in 1980, and a magnitude
7.2 earthquake struck Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, in 1975. Both
volcanoes were quiet at the time. The Hawaii earthquake triggered a
small eruption at the summit of Kilauea. No eruption has yet
occurred at Long Valley, but the area has been restless since the
1980 earthquakes.
Q: Can a town's water supply become contaminated when a volcano is
restless?
A: Yes, but probably not as quickly as shown in the movie. If a
town's water supply originates directly from a volcano's
groundwater system or from a stream that has been covered with
volcanic ash, the water could become contaminated with foul-
smelling gases or fine ash and other sediment. Some volcanic gases
such as sulfur dioxide dissolve in groundwater, making the water
acidic. Sulfurous odors, however, are caused by hydrogen sulfide
gas, which smells like rotten eggs.
Q: Do scientists drive across moving lava flows?
A: No. Any attempt to drive across an active lava flow, even one
that has partly solidified to form a thin crust, is likely to lead
to disaster. With a temperature of 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit or
higher, fresh lava will quickly melt rubber tires and ignite gas
tanks. And if a vehicle gets stuck in moving lava, well, you know
the rest of the story.
Q: Can carbon dioxide gas from volcanoes kill trees and wildlife?
A: Yes. At several volcanoes around the world, carbon dioxide gas
released from magma has accumulated in the soil in sufficient
concentrations to kill vegetation or has collected in low areas and
suffocated animals. At Mammoth Mountain in California, carbon
dioxide has killed about 100 acres of trees since 1989, and
visitors to this area have occasionally suffered symptoms of
asphyxiation when entering cabins or below- ground excavations.
USGS scientists have concluded that the gas is escaping from a
magma body beneath Mammoth Mountain. The magma itself is not
currently moving toward the surface, but the USGS is monitoring the
situation carefully.
Q: Can volcanoes suddenly become restless and erupt within one week
of the first signs of activity?
A: Yes. The first steam eruption at Mount St. Helens on March 27,
1980, was preceded by only 7 days of intense earthquake activity.
The climactic eruption, on May 18, followed seven weeks later. An
eruption of Redoubt Volcano in Alaska on December 13, 1989, was
preceded by only 24 hours of intense earthquake activity. But other
volcanoes have been restless for months or years before an eruption
occurred, and sometimes a period of unrest doesn't produce an
eruption at all.
Q: Are robots used by the USGS to monitor volcanoes?
A: No. We rely on observations and measurements made by experienced
scientists and on critical data sent by radio or satellite relay
from monitoring instruments installed around a volcano. These
instruments include seismometers, tiltmeters, Global Positioning
System (GPS) receivers, gas sensors, mudflow (lahar or debris flow)
sensors, and temperature probes.
NASA has tested a robot named Dante at Mount Erebus volcano in
Antarctica and Mount Spurr volcano in Alaska. The USGS believes
that, on Earth, experienced volcanologists are a better and more
cost-effective alternative for monitoring dangerous volcanoes.
Q: Can volcanoes produce large explosive eruptions and rivers of
fluid lava at the same time?
A: Not usually. During a single eruption, a volcano CAN produce
both lava flows and ash, sometimes simultaneously. The red, glowing
lava fountains and lava flows in Dante's Peak (including the active
flow across which Harry Dalton drives) are characteristic of a
fluid magma, called basalt. In contrast, explosive gray ash columns
and pyroclastic flows shown in other scenes are characteristic of
more viscous magmas, called andesite, dacite, or rhyolite. It's
uncommon for a volcano to erupt magmas of widely different
composition at the same time.
Q: Can lakes near volcanoes become acidic enough to be dangerous to
people?
A: Yes. Crater lakes atop volcanoes are typically the most acid,
with pH values as low as 0.1 (very strong acid). Normal lake
waters, in contrast, have relatively neutral pH values near 7.0.
The crater lake at El Chichon volcano in Mexico had a pH of 0.5 in
1983 and Mount Pinatubo's crater lake had a pH of 1.9 in 1992. The
acid waters of these lakes are capable of causing burns to human
skin but are unlikely to dissolve metal quickly. Gases from magma
that dissolve in lake water to form such acidic brews include
carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen
chloride, and hydrogen fluoride. However, the movie's rapidly
formed acidic lake capable of dissolving an aluminum boat in a
matter of minutes is unrealistic.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
4. VOLCANO (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: VOLCANO is a bizarre disaster film
that treats an erupting volcano as an urban
crisis. It is sort of a horizontal version of
THE TOWERING INFERNO. Lava, seen as the main
threat from the volcano, is treated a sort of
monster that lurks in tunnels and crawls out on
the street devouring all in its path. Most of
the real dangers of a volcano like the force of
the blast and superheated gasses get what is at
most a superficial and much toned down
treatment. Tommy Lee Jones stars as a
functionary trying to keep a lid on the
problem. The visuals are colorful, but the
script is just terrible. DANTE'S PEAK had its
faults and perhaps was no great shakes, but
VOLCANO cannot hold a candle to it. Rating: 0
(-4 to +4)
This is the spring of two different volcano movies, DANTE'S PEAK
and VOLCANO and it surprising how differently the two films treat
the same sort of disaster. DANTE'S PEAK was a dark and downbeat
film taking place in Mt. St. Helens territory and its disaster is
filmed in dark colors. Its message is that volcanoes are immensely
powerful forces of nature and even with the help of technology
about the best we can hope for from a confrontation is to get away
alive. But they are impressive. VOLCANO is set in Los Angeles
among famous landmarks. It tells us that with a bit of ingenuity
and a little time any problems including volcanoes can be solved.
Much of VOLCANO is tongue-in-cheek with in-jokes about well- known
Los Angeles personalities and digs at the controversial Metro
system. In short VOLCANO is just one more colorful action film.
It seem to have had little interest in seriously exploring the
possibility of a volcano in Los Angeles. It does not seem to have
been based at all on any existing accounts of real eruptions.
For Mike Roark (played by Tommy Lee Jones), the director of the
Office of Emergency Management, the first day of the disaster
starts off badly... with an earthquake. In spite of officially
being on vacation, he wants to jump immediately into action. But
his first problem is that he has to find a sitter to manage his
rambunctious thirteen-year-old daughter Kelly (Gaby Hoffman). When
he gets to his job, Mike's way of managing is to be in the field
investigating while his assistant (Don Cheadle) manages things in
the office. It is not long before the earthquake problem gives way
to a mystery of several workers who were mysteriously burned in an
underground tunnel by something strange that left no sign of its
presence. Whatever it is leaves scorching only on its victims, not
on the walls of the tunnel. It is time to call in spunky
seismologist Dr. Amy Hoffmann (Anne Heche) and between them they
discover that the real problem is volcanic flames that creep up
through the cracks in the floor of the tunnel, then sneak away
before they can be seen or leave a scorch-mark. Amy discovers this
secret, but before she can tell anyone, the flames attack with a
genuine volcanic eruption geysering out of the La Brea Tar Pits.
This micro-mini-eruption sends flaming rocks into the air which
come down like cannonballs for blocks around and ash starts falling
like snow. But then the real threat appears, streams of hot liquid
lava come out of the volcano. They flood Wilshire Boulevard
setting fires and burning cars (but for some reason never exploding
the gas tanks). With angry lava in the streets the question
becomes, can it be stopped before it reaches actual homes? Also,
can a coalition of Los Angeles residents put aside their ethnic
differences and work together to save the city from the
uncontrolled lava stream?
Director Mike Jackson has done some intelligent films including
THREADS, THE RACE FOR THE DOUBLE HELIX, A VERY BRITISH COUP, L.A.
STORY, and INDICTMENT. Each of those is a modest film that reaches
for the mind rather than getting a gut reaction. Unfortunately,
that was not how he made VOLCANO. This was a script that he should
have turned down from the start, but perhaps he wanted to see what
he could do with a bigger budget. The story and screenplay are by
first-timer Jerome Armstrong, though Billy Ray shares the
authorship of the script. Tommy Lee Jones is okay, but needs to
get a little more variety into the roles he plays. He has one
interesting character, but he has played that character too often.
More interesting is the seismologist played by Anne Heche. She
currently is also playing Johnny Depp's long-suffering wife in
DONNIE BRASCO.
Armstrong throws frequent jokes into the script, though most of us
will have to have many of the jokes explained. Apparently Dennis
Woodruff's car, seen prominently in a pool of lava, is a familiar
Los Angeles sight. Also familiar is a billboard with a particular
actress. Just whether a certain restaurant chain we see multiple
times is an in-joke or a product placement, I am not sure. There
are some scenes probably were not very well thought-out. Mike
seems to be abusing his power asking for special attention from the
fire department for his daughter. This probably did not sit well
with the audience. In one scene Amy apparently measures a
temperature of the ground and gets a reading of 600 degrees just
below her feet. That would have burned away her feet. While the
special effects are generally fairly good, the digitized lava flows
are not always convincing. Neither are some of the matte
paintings.
If you want to see an action adventure see VOLCANO, if you want to
have a feel for what it really would be like to be caught too close
to an erupting volcano, see DANTE'S PEAK. VOLCANO rates a 0 on the
-4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 908-957-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
The nature of men and women--their essential
nature--is so vile and despicable that if you
were to portray a person as he really is,
no one would believe you.
-- W. Somerset Maugham