Pokémon Snap 2: Volcanic Snaparoo

Back in 1999 the original Pokémon Snap was release for the Nintendo 64. For those of you who don’t know, Pokémon tends to have a very generic formula that they have been using for over two decades. Players role-play as a 10-year-old Pokémon trainer, catching Pokémon – animals – and using them to fight a villainous super group in between defeating the eight local gyms and eventually the five league champs. 

Pokémon Snap decided to change that and put you in the shoes of a natural photographer. Set on a pre-programmed safari tour, like the original Jurassic Park jeeps – called the NEO-ONE – you would be taken through various environments, photographing Pokémon in their natural habitats. It was a very successful spin-off, with many fans loving the pixelated interactions between different Pokémon, instead of watching them in forced battles because you accidentally looked a kid in the eye. Ever since then, fans have been begging for a sequel. 

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Various Pokémon snapped as they go about their business

22 years of waiting is all it took. Now the New Pokémon Snap is here! Hired by Professor Mirror (a non-tree-named professor!!), you become part of the Lental Research Team, tasked with photographing the strange phenomenon of mysterious Pokémon with funky, glowing tribal tattoos that were discovered by an adventurer 100 years prior, and never revisited since. 

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As bizarre as this storyline maybe, it does lead into a fantastic game that sees you visiting all the different habitats of a David Attenborough Planet Earth series: grasslands, jungles, icy tundras, deep caves, tropical oceans, deserts and most importantly, an active volcanic landscape!

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Map of the Rental Region and its wide array of environments

Fireflow Volcano

Located on the aptly named, Voluca Island, Fireflow Volcano is one of three unique environments found on the island (the others being the Sweltering Sands and Barrent Badland). Described as a place where Pokémon have thrived since prehistoric times, the volcanic landscape is home to plenty of fire-types, fossil Pokémon and a handful of others for a healthy biodiversity blend. 

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The main area itself is made up of a large hot spring, a small valley with a lava flow from a near-off volcano and a large volcano that has several small areas within. Plenty to explore within your little hover bubble. Additional to this is another area with two volcanic vents side-by side, where the illumina Volcarona are found.

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Hot Bath

When you first land in the area, you arrive within a dark grey, rocky area with a visually contrasting light blue water. Prof Mirror is quick to point out you are at a hot spring, a geothermal body of water that form when water in the ground is heated up by shallow magma. The water can either come from groundwater stores, or it can percolate from deep down, usually along faults, before heating up and rising to the surface.

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Fireflow’s hot spring

Hot springs can be found in many volcanic areas all over the world, with famous examples including the Blue Lagoon in Iceland (would recommend a swim if you ever get the chance) and Yellowstone National Park, USA. The water flowing out of the springs can range from a nice, hot bath temperature to one that will seriously scold you. Judging by the range of Pokémon (Altaria, Luxray and others) found enjoying the waters, it would appear this hot spring is closer to the warmer, than scolding temperature, much like the Blue Lagoon this hot spring mirrors.

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Blue Lagoon, Iceland (Photo taken by Ed McGowan)

Lava Stomping Ground

Swiftly moving on, the NEO-ONE takes you down an open path where a group of Gravelers love to roll down. At the bottom it opens into a small valley with a fresh lava flow running through. The lava flow itself is reminiscent of some of the off flows from Fagradalsfjall volcano currently erupting in Iceland. A far-off volcano can be seen erupting up the valley, acting as a possible origin point for the flow (source vent). However, given the activity in the region and the distance of the volcano, I suspect it is coming from another vent nearby.

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One safety aspect that should be mentioned is that even though a lava flow – like the one seen here – is fairly solid on the surface, you should not try walking across it (something others have recently been trying at Fagradalsfjall). The reason being is because while the surface maybe solid, this will only be a thin layer of solid rock and underneath is very likely to still be molten. Should the rocky surface collapse in, you will end up with a very badly burnt foot at best. The same applies for the Pokémon found running across the lava too! Archeops could possibly get away with it. At only 32kg (70.5 lbs), Archeops is a light-weight Pokémon and are generally walking across the lava with a light foot. When they start running off with a heavier footing, they are also flapping their poorly evolved wings, possibly giving them enough of a lift to not break the surface of the lava. The barrelling Gravelers (105kg) and stomping Tyrantrum (270kg) would certainly be smashing through the solid surface. Whether the molten lava would cause any pain to them is a different question. I think Graveler – literal living rock – could get away pain free. Tyrantrum on the other hand may have one more thing to complain about. 

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Walking Into Mordor

After two Tyrantrum decide it’s a good idea to have a yelling competition on the lava, the NEO-ONE takes you towards the entrance of a cave. Inside is the first of the large volcanic vents. Admittedly there is not much going on volcanically speaking. Some lava can be seen down below, however, the rest of the chamber is made up of rocky paths, likely carved out by the local inhabitants. It is at this point you will get a chance to choose whether to take the left or right path (if you’re past Level 2). We’ll start by taking the standard route, turning left.

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This path takes you into the molten heart of the main volcanic magma chamber. Inside is a fantastic magma lake, with cascading ‘lavafalls’ and small islands of rock where various (mostly fire- and rock-type) Pokémon are going about their lives. The Pokémon range from the already seen Graveler, Tyrantrum (this time having a fight with a Charizard), and Archeops, to the fire-types Charmander, Charizard, Torkoal and even some Slugma swimming around in the magma. 

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Being the barer of bad news, it’s sad to say that a situation like this would never be seen in the real world. Ignoring the fact that some of the Pokémon are literal dinosaurs, living rocks and sentient lava, life of this size and complexity would not be found living within such a hot chamber. 

Temperatures here could range from 700-1200°C (just think about how us Brits cope when it turns +30°C for more than two days). Such extremophiles (creatures that can live in ridiculously hostile environments) that live in/ near volcanic craters tend to only be basic micro-organisms. And even then, they are only found on the edge of the craters or in extremely hot volcanic springs like we’ve seen before (brilliant article if you want to read more on this subject). The closest large life comes to living in such an extremely hot volcanic environment are crustaceans, tube worms and some fish that feed on bacteria living around black smokers (hydrothermal vents), like those seen in Subnautica. While temperatures are very hot here, they only reach around 380°C, far less than the 700-1200°C that the inside of a magma chamber could be.

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The other unrealistic situation is being able to enter a magma chamber. While this is a very common video game trope, magma chambers are far more difficult to access in real life. For a start, many magma chambers are located several kilometres below the ground. Magma then rises from feeder dykes (like a fluid up a straw) until it reaches the surface and erupts out. To add further salt in the wound, seismic surveys show these magma chambers to be more like zones of partially molten rock and crystal mush, meaning they are not necessarily these underground voids that fill up with magma. Trying to access the chamber from the open vent is not any easier. Sitting at the bottom of a volcanic crater is either a molten lava lake (e.g. Hawaii, USA) or a lava dome (e.g. Mt. St. Helens, USA). In the case of lava domes, the lava has cooled and turned to solid rock and blocks access to the magma supply below. The molten lava lake has its own obvious problems.

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Schematic diagram of a volcano (Gudmundsson, 2012)

This is not to say magma chambers do not exist in the way that they are commonly shown in textbook diagrams. There is one very unique volcano in Iceland. Þríhnúkagígur, is the only volcano in the entire world where you can actually descend into an empty magma chamber. By some miracle, the volcano had an exceptionally shallow chamber, and when the volcano went into its slumber (its currently classed as dormant), all of the magma drained away instead of solidifying inside. Tours are open to the public, and yes, you can descend into it (its up near the top on my bucket list). Although not quite the same as going into an active volcano with molten lava around, it is the closest we can currently get. 

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Inside Þríhnúkagígur’s magma chamber (Photo taken from Inside A Volcano)

At the end of the path within the main magma chamber you reach the end checkpoint and teleport out. Therefore, it’s time to back-track to the previous cavern and take the path to the right. 

A Chari-dome

The right-hand path first takes you into a small volcanic vent with a semi-molten lava dome at the bottom. 

*Spoilers* If you perform the correct sequence of events by throwing various illuminous orbs and fluffy fruit (apples), you can make the Graveler hanging from the ceiling crash down and a Charizard will explode out of the lava dome. 

Compared to the lava flow outside, the fact that the Graveler does not crash deep into the lava dome does not surprise me too much. As briefly mentioned, lava domes are made of the solidified lava left in the conduit. They form a sort of cork in the volcano, which can lift up from rising magma underneath and even explode if the pressure builds too high. Therefore, even in this lava dome’s semi-molten state, it could be significantly thick enough for the Graveler to not crash through and disappear. Why a Charizard was hiding in there and how it managed to survive the extremely high temperatures (as the dome is still very hot) I really cannot say.

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Blue Lava

Passing on, you move into what is possible the most visually spectacular place in the entire map, a blue lava chamber. To some this may seem like the most unrealistic, mythical volcanic feature we’ve ever covered. However, if you have read our Sypro: Remastered Trilogy blog, you may have already heard of the legendary blue lava in our world. Despite its name, blue lava is not actually lava. It is instead burning sulphur released from volcanoes and gives off the appearance of lava. Kawa Ijen volcano in Indonesia is the most famous example of ‘blue lava’ and produces so much sulphur that it is a significant mining site. In Pokémon Snap, a Graveler can be seen snacking on the sulphur from the lava. Why this vent has more sulphur than all the other red lava vents is unknown.

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  Mount Ijen – the blue fire of Mt. Ijen- taken during a photo trip to Indonesia in 2018 – by Thomas Fuhrmann – see more pictures on http://www.snowmanstudios.de

Temple of the Illuminous 

Moving on, you eventually pass into the final area which contains an ancient ruin, presumably left behind by humans (although there is nothing to say Pokémon could not have made it). The entrance to the ruined temple is situated in another volcanic vent, with a large opening at the top. Lava cascades down some of the sides and forms a moat around the central platform. The platform itself is probably the top of a lava dome of an inactive vent, with the molten lava supplied from more active vents nearby. How the humans managed to survive the intense temperature of the lava is unknown. A possibility could be that when it was made the molten lava was not flowing into the vent, resulting in more manageable temperatures. Or it was built by some very stubborn humans with the assistances of volcanic-resistant Pokémon, like the Typhlosions found inside. If you are lucky enough you can also get the chance to encounter a Ho-oh in the vent for some spectacular photos. Unfortunately, a teleport checkpoint appears and that ends the tour in Fireflow Volcano.

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Illumina Spot

Once completing a sufficient amount of the Fireflow map, you eventually get access to the region’s Illumia Spot. This is the hiding place for the island’s mythical Illumina Pokémon. Located in Fireflow’s largest volcano, the map sees you travelling through not one, but two massive active craters.

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The aim of this map is to chase and photograph the mythical Illumina Pokémon that were originally documented 100 years prior. When you arrive, you are confronted by not one, but two Volcarona (similarly matching the twin volcanic craters). As you chase the two volcanic Pokémon through the craters, you can throw Illumina orbs at special flowers, which can illuminate the magical ‘tribal tattoos’ on the Volcarona. Photos of the ‘tattoos’ eventually help you progress through the game, unlocking new areas to find other Illumina Pokémon elsewhere. 

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In terms of the volcanology of the twin craters, areas of volcanic activity that are related to subduction zones can often have a large number of sizable volcanoes close to each other. In some rare cases, the close proximity can even result in simultaneous eruptions. That being said, two craters of this size, side-by-side, both with active lava lakes within, is not something seen on Earth. Going back to the Icelandic Fagradalsfjall example, in the early stages of the eruption there were two active vents side-by-side, and several others in nearby. This makes it a visually similar example. However, these were much smaller, nowhere near those in Fireflow. 

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Fagradalsfjall erupting vents (Photo from WildernessCoffeeNaturalHigh)

Elsewhere in Lental

While Fireflow Volcano does have the highest concentration of volcanic activity within the Lental Region, it is not the only place you can find signs of volcanism. 

In the Barren Badlands (a recently added map), an area of desert just outside of the active volcanic hotspot on Voluca Island, there are geysers exploding water out as you pass by. Geysers are very closely related to hot springs (like those seen at the start of the Fireflow map). Unlike their calmer counterparts, in geysers the water is confined deep underground. As the water heats up, it begins to boil and expand. The expansion then leads to increased pressure in the vent system and eventually builds up so much it erupts out, just as seen in the Badlands. The most famous real-world example would be Old Faithful, USA, but many others can be found around the world. 

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Over on Durice, a frozen artic landscape, northeast of Voluca, another volcanic related feature can be found, hidden deep within a cave. Extremely large crystals play home to not only some Carbink, but also a rare Diance. These overly sized crystals formed when magma rose from underneath and heated up some groundwater, forming mineral-rich hydrothermal water. The water travelled away from the magma, filling an empty cavern. As the hydrothermal water very slowly cooled calcium and sulphates slowly precipitated out, forming gypsum crystals. Because the water cooled so slowly, it gave the crystals an extremely long time to grow, longer than what forms your average crystal found in a shop. 

Just like with the blue lava, gigantic crystals of this size seem like something pulled straight out of a fantasy world. They are, however, most likely based on the real-world example of the Cave of Crystals in Naica, Mexico. Found by miners hunting for metals in 2000, they happened to come across a large cavern full of water. After the water was pumped out, they discovered that instead of metals, they had stumbled across the largest crystals ever seen. Some of the gypsum pillars measure 12m tall and formed exactly how it is described above. For those wishing to see the crystals, unfortunately the mining company has since let the cavern reflood (which will let the crystals continue to grow), and currently do not have plans to redrain it for now.

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Cristales Cueva de Naica (Cave of Crystals), Mexico (Photo taken from Wikipedia)

And so, concludes the volcanic tour of the Lental Region (unless more maps get released in the future). Overall, there is a brilliant variety of different landscapes and features, from hot springs to magma chambers and even gigantic crystals. At the same time, for all Pokémon (or animal) fans, there is the joys of seeing all the creatures interacting with said landscapes.

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re-designing a popular videogame – a final year project

Hello everyone, it has been a while! Sorry about that, things have been super busy. Today I want to share work a New York Gallatin University Student, Geneva, I had the outmost pleasure in providing advice and feedback on. It was such a pleasure to work with Geneva and they did an outstanding job! This post if quite long, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the journey of adding to the educational value of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, without taking away the entertainment factor.

Jazmin

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Hello fellow video game-volcanologists! For those of you who have been following Dr. Scarlett’s volcano video game reviews, it comes at no surprise to say that our video game realm is overflowing with misinformed and inaccurate representations of volcanoes. If you, like I, have read many of Jazmin’s and Ed’s video game reviews, we can all agree that with a little more effort on the part of video game developers than perhaps gamers worldwide would be a little more informed about the workings and handlings of volcanoes and their eruptions. Whether education be the intended purpose or not, video games have the power to be educational resources while still maintaining its entertainment factor. That is why I sought out to test whether entertainment-intended video games hold the ability to be scientifically accurate—in terms of volcanoes—while not taking away from its entertainment factor. In fact, I aimed to add fun. I did what I like to call a video game redesign where I choose one video game with a volcano that is part of the storyline to analyze, work with, and alter in a way that makes the volcano factual.

With Dr. Scarlett’s help I chose Shadow of the Tomb Raider because: 1) the volcano is influential to the storyline and 2) the storyline and the volcano were made to be realistic (for example, there were no fictional creatures in the storyline who decided that the volcano was the best place to live). If you would like more background information on the game itself or what Jazmin noted about the game, you can refer to her post on The Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

In any case, to approach this project, I examined what a volcano would look like and be like if it were realistically placed in the part of the world that fictional Paititi takes place (although the volcanic eruption takes place in the Church of San Juan in the game, it is noted that the Church is close to Paititi). Although Paititi is a fictional location in the game, it has legendary significance by being a lost Inca city that supposedly lies East of the Andes and within the rainforests of Southwest Peru (Dobson 2016). Inca traditions mention a city near the area of Cuzco, deep in the jungle (Dobson 2016). Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the volcano within The Shadow of the Tomb Raider is located somewhere in or around the city of Cuzco. To begin constructing the characteristics of the volcano within the game, information on four real-life nearby volcanoes were collected to analyze their behaviors and rock composition.

Sabancaya is a stratovolcano with andesite, basaltic andesite, and dacite composition and mainly consisted of Plinian eruptions with andesitic and dacitic lava flows (Degg and Chester 2005). Chachani is a stratovolcano with andesite, basaltic andesite, dacite, and rhyolite composition with a high summit and hydrothermal activity (Degg and Chester 2005). Coropuna is a stratovolcano with andesite, basaltic andesite, and dacite composition that is covered by ice with the potential to produce lahars, as well as lava flows that generally descend the NE, SE, and W flanks and canyons (Degg and Chester 2005). El Misti is a stratovolcano with andesite, basaltic andesite, dacite, and rhyolite composition, tephra-fall deposits, numerous pyroclastic flows, volcanic ash extending up to 20 km downwind, and dominated by volcano-tectonic earthquakes (Degg and Chester 2005). By accumulating basic knowledge of such nearby volcanoes, there is a better understanding of what is typical for volcanoes in this region. By following the common characteristics of Peru’s nearby volcanoes, it was made clear that the volcano by Paititi would most likely be composed of andesite and basaltic andesite rock composition and be a stratovolcano. This would result in explosive eruptions with a large eruptive column and strong pyroclastic flows (USGS 2015). It is important to note that pyroclastic flows typically travel 10-15 km, but can reach up to 100 km (UMass n.d.). There
would also likely be valleys and canyons running along the side of the volcano and into the nearby rainforest, acting as possible pathways for pyroclastic flows and lahars.

Next, it is also important to also seismic activity in this region of Peru when constructing a fictional volcano. Seismicity varies in the regions of Peru. The country is part of the ‘Circum-Pacific Ring of Fire’ that is known for its high levels of seismic activity and volcanic activity that accounts for around 76% of the global annual seismic energy release (Degg and Chester 2005). Still, areas East of the Andes are part of the tectonically stable Brazilian shield (Degg and Chester 2005). The central segment of Peru was most active during the historical period while coastal cities are now the ones severely exposed to earthquakes (Degg and Chester 2005). All of the Peruvian active volcanoes lie in what is called the ‘Central Volcano Zone’ that is high in seismic activity and, of course, high volcanic activity (Degg and Chester 2005). Many of the coastal, southern cities, for example Arequipa, are at risk of both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions (Degg and Chester 2005). Cuzco and the area around it is not in the active volcanic zone, however, the area can reach medium-high seismic activity (Degg and Chester 2005). The highest magnitude can be 7.9, based on fig. 1. Fig. 2 illustrates that seismic intensity can reach strong levels, similar to the intensity of the sixteen active volcanoes in Peru’s southwestern region (Degg and Chester 2005). All of this is to say that earthquakes, especially in association with volcanic activity, are likely to occur. In regards to the volcano around the town of Paititi, earthquakes may serve as a useful precursor indicating that the volcano may erupt.

Fig. 1: “Peruvian seismicity (M ≥5.0), 1900-1998.” Created by Degg and Chester. [2005]. From The Geographical Journal. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3451364.pdf

Fig. 2: “Earthquake hazard map of Peru.” Created by Deggs and Chester. [2005]. From The Geographical Journal. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3451364.pdf

Another geographic consideration when constructing a fictional volcano in Peru is climate. Heavy precipitation can increase the likelihood of rain-induced lahars. Although for the most part the temperature in Cuzco is spring-like, there are heavy rain periods between the months of November to March—rainy days mostly occur in the December and January months—where there are around 15 to 23 rainy days during these months (World Weather n.d.). The average amount of annual precipitation is 736.0 mm and the average amount of rainy days is 102.0 (Weather and Climate). All of this is to say that there can be high precipitation levels in Cuzco. Therefore, rain-induced lahars are likely to occur on this volcano, especially between the months of November to March.

Now that a general overview of what a fictional volcano in the region of Peru has been made, I began to think about the placement of the volcano in relation to the Church of San Juan. In the game we notice that the volcano looms over the village and not much is given besides that. Therefore, based on my personal interpretation of the game, I created a hazard map to illustrate a possible design of what this volcano could possibly look like in relation to the Church of San Juan and in Peru, and the possible locations pyroclastic flows and lahars would reach (see fig. 3). The hazard map was made based on information pulled from the video game itself, including wind direction and waterways, and scientific understanding of volcanoes in Peru, pyroclastic flows, and lahars.

Fig. 3: The Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s volcano hazard map*

Before getting into the changes I made to the game, it is also important to think about the impact the volcano has on the village where the Church of San Juan is located. This is significant. Volcanic knowledge can be limited and evacuations may not be taken seriously. Residents may feel tied to their lands and refuse to leave, others may be fearful at the first possible precursors for an eruption and leave immediately. Either way, there are always mixed reactions to the possibility of an eruption and recognizing those diverse perspectives is important.

In the case of Paititi’s volcano in The Shadow of the Tomb Raider, this exact community impact would be experienced.

Finally to get into the redesign idea I had in mind.

In the current version of The Shadow of the Tomb Raider the volcano is presented in a very realistic way; however, based on the factual volcanic characteristics that have been laid out so far, from the geography of the volcano to common community impact, added hazards, information, and activities in the game would make Paititi’s volcano more accurate and entertaining:

First, in the game, there are no precursors to indicate an impending eruption. So, in the redesign, three volcanic precursor earthquakes are added. Two occur before the main characters, Lara and Jonah, arrive at the Church of San Juan to insinuate that there is dialogue around a possible eruption within the townspeople. The dialogue is made by a radio broadcaster as a side comment but is meant to tell Lara and Jonah, and the users, about possible volcanic precursors. The third occurs during one of the climactic scenes in the game where Lara hands over the ancient artifact that the entire game is spent in search for. It is added to initiate a dramatic “chase” scene and the splitting up of the two main characters, while also to serve as an indication that the eruption is soon to happen. It serves to build the storyline, add suspense to the looming eruption, and add realistic volcanic behavior.

Second, in the game, there is no dialogue about the volcano or about a possible eruption among the townspeople. Business is being carried out as usual. Although it is possible that no one would suspect a future eruption to occur, especially since there seems to be no precursors, it seems unlikely that Lara would not warn individuals living within the town of a possible eruption given that she knows a volcanic eruption is the fourth and final cataclysm event. Therefore, with the addition of the volcanic precursor earthquakes, a conversation is added between Lara and two townspeople about the volcano. The conversation shows two different perspectives about how an eruption could be perceived in the town. One gentleman expresses his reluctance to leave because of his tie to his land while another gentleman is getting ready to leave immediately. The conversation also aims to reveal another visible precursor for an eruption: rockslides. This is all to show the tension and discussion that can occur when the possibility of an eruption hangs in the air. The conversation also aims to hint towards the location of protective equipment that individuals should wear if there would be an eruption. This is to insinuate that the characters are going to have to look for such protective equipment before the eruption—adding a small activity to the game—and to demonstrate the danger in volcanic ash and the health necessity for protective equipment. In addition to this specific dialogue, one other piece of dialogue is added when Lara, Jonah, and a friend are arriving at the Church of San Juan. A short comment is made by a radio broadcaster who talks about the two precursor earthquakes. It is meant to demonstrate awareness that the earthquakes may be associated with the volcano without true scientific understanding. Essentially, it is there to show slight uncertainty and confusion about a possible eruption in town, while also showing that people are aware of what is going on but that the general public is remaining calm.

Third, as previously mentioned, an activity is added to the game. This is for Lara and Jonah to find protective masks ahead of the eruption so that they could be protected from volcanic ash. Once again, this is meant to demonstrate the danger of volcanic ash and the importance of protective equipment. The original gameplay has Jonah punch a gunman and run off with the ancient artifact that they have finally found to ensure that the villain, Dominguez, does not use it. Jonah and Lara then split up. Instead of punching the gunman to escape, a volcanic earthquake is added to distract everyone so that Jonah can retrieve back the artifact and run away, leaving Lara to realize that the eruption is very close and that they will need masks. Lara must then find the equipment at the location that is given to her earlier in the game. This adds suspense and “build-up” as Lara must find the masks, fight gunmen, and find Jonah all before the eruption. Later in the game, Lara tells Jonah to put on his mask because the ash is starting to fall. They both wear their masks till the eruption ends.

Fourth, in the original gameplay, the eruption is downplayed. As the biggest cataclysm that is to occur in the storyline, the eruption is anti-climatic because it is only felt, not seen, so it is difficult to tell that the eruption actually occurred. Many users commented on their confusion with the volcanic eruption—they were unsure when or whether the volcano had truly erupted. In addition, during the eruption, the original gameplay shows a small lava fountain with no pyroclastic flows, despite the likelihood of a huge lava fountain and pyroclastic flows based on the eruption size, volcano shape, and composition. It can be reasonable to assume that the volcanic eruption is the largest that the area of Cuzco has ever experienced because of how much fear and importance the game places on it as being the last of the big four cataclysms. For entertainment purposes, this also makes sense. Therefore, to include stronger emphasis on the volcano and its eruption, a large eruption is included that shocks the town and can be seen by the user playing the game. A large ash column—similar to the original gameplay—rises up, the lava foundation is large, and the wind is made clear to be in the direction of the Church of San Juan—indicating that the ash column is to make its way over in their direction (the original game does a good job demonstrating wind direction). As Lara is looking up at the eruption, a pyroclastic flow is added. It runs down the side of the volcano, just north of Lara, indicating that it will not hit the Church of San Juan directly, but that it is close. Although it is not meant to head in the direction of the town, it is meant to show another danger associated with volcanic eruptions. This addition is meant to illustrate a more realistic representation of the likelihood of pyroclastic flows. Overall, the additions made to the game are made to indicate that this is the most dangerous event. All the precursors, dialogue, and activities are added to build up anticipation and suspense for the eruption.

Fifth, in the game there is already a lahar, however, the game makes the lahar move through city streets, not valleys. Also, the game does not give any reason as to why there is a lahar. Although one of the challenges that Lara and Jonah must overcome right before they go to Paititi shows it to be raining, there is no indication as to how much time passes between that event and them heading to Paititi. Therefore, rain is added from the moment Lara and Jonah arrive at the Church of San Juan to indicate that the mudflow is rain-induced after the eruption. This seems plausible because in the beginning of the game, Lara and Jonah are attending a Día de Muertos celebration in Mexico, which is in the month of November. The rest of the game takes place days and weeks after the initial scene, which is exactly when Peru experiences it’s rainiest season. Moreover, another additional activity is added where Lara is forced into a river valley when chasing down the falling helicopter of Dominguez. When Lara falls into the valley, a mudflow comes after her, implying that the lahar followed the pathway of the valley and will continue to do so. Lara is forced to climb her way out as she has to try and balance between different-sized rocks and debris and not fall into the moving lahar. Not only is this intended to make the location and production of the mudflow realistic, but it is meant to add an additional activity that the user must maneuver Lara through to stay alive. It adds to the thrill, excitement,
and complexity of the game.

Lastly, the sixth addition to the game is disaster recovery efforts. In this additional dialogue segment—after Jonah picks up Lara after escaping the lahar—Lara and Jonah have a conversation about the consequences and impact the volcano left on the town, including the domestic animals and the people. It is intended to demonstrate what happens when there is no disaster preparedness for volcanic eruptions and the suffering that follows. Dialogue regarding possible recovery efforts for the people is also included to show the user possible action steps people and leaders can take after a disaster occurs that will bring relief to the people affected. All in all, it is meant to wrap up the volcano’s appearance in the video game, show the importance of recovery efforts, Lara’s accountability for her actions, her compassion, and foreshadow her future plans after defeating Dominguez, and show realistic recovery efforts that occur after an eruption—eruptions take time to recover from and leave nothing the same.

To properly convey the changes I aimed to make, I created a script that depicts the dialogue and physical changes I made to the game and how it would fit within the original storyline. This script can be found here those of you who would like to check it out. It also includes illustrations to show some of the changes I made.

And that is about it! The six features added to The Shadow of the Tomb Raider are meant to make volcano representation in the game more realistic while not attempting to take away any of the entertainment factors. In fact, I attempted to increase the entertainment quality by adding more hazards to navigate. Although educational games are impactful tools when trying to educate in an exciting way, video games meant for entertainment, or commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games—such as The Shadow of the Tomb Raider—reach a larger audience and have the ability to also be a teaching tool (McGowan and Scarlett 2021). Mcgowan and Scarlett (2021) state that “one of the major negative sides to using COTS games as a form of tangential learning is that they can often contain inaccurate features that would misinform players and lead to erroneous learning.” If implemented correctly, the opposite may be true. That is what I hope to have done.

Let me know what you think about this idea! I am always open to suggestions in my design.

To close, I would like to give a big thank you to Dr. Jazmin Scarlett for giving me the platform to share my work on The Shadow of the Tomb Raider! I wish you all the very best in your video game endeavors!

All the best, Geneva

References

1. “Climate and Average Monthly Weather in Cusco (Cusco), Peru.” n.d. World Weather & Climate Information. https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainfall-Temperature-Sunshine, Cusco, Peru.
2. Dobson, Jim. 2016. “How the Discovery Of Paititi, The Lost City Of Gold, May Change Peru Forever.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine.
   https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2016/01/11/move-over-machu-picchu-the-discovery-of-paititi-the-secret-city-of-gold-may-change-peru-forever/?sh=26c7f3695e85.
3. E. G. McGowan, and J. P. Scarlett. 2021. “Volcanoes in Video Games: The Portrayal of Volcanoes in Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) Video Games and Their Learning Potential.” Geoscience Communication 4 (February): 11–31. doi:10.5194/gc-4-11-2021.
4. Degg Martin R., and Chester David K. 2005. “Seismic and Volcanic Hazards in Peru: Changing Attitudes to Disaster Mitigation.” The Geographical Journal 171 (2): 125–45. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.3451364&site=eds-live.
5. “Pyroclastic Flows and Surges.” n.d. University of Massachusetts.
   http://www.geo.umass.edu/courses/volcanology/Pyroclastic%202.pdf.
6. “Volcano Hazards Program Glossary – Andesite.” 2015. USGS.
   https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/glossary/andesite.html.

Groudon, Use Total Eruption!

I recently gave a podcast interview to the awesome The Science of Pokémon team (if you haven’t listened to their stuff, I highly recommend them). In the podcast I talk about volcanoes and we discuss particular volcanic-orientated Pokémon. Obviously, we had to mention the great legendary Groudon.

Groudon, the continent Pokémon, was exploited by Team Magma in Ruby/Omega Ruby in hopes of using its abilities to cause immense droughts and trigger volcanic eruptions. For some unknown reason Team Magma thought it would be a fantastic idea to increase the total landmass available on Earth, shrinking the seas and reaping the ‘rewards’… 

First talked about in The Science of Pokémon lecture: “Worst. Plan. Ever”, Lucas gives a broad overview of how terrible an idea this is. In my interview Lucas asked me how bad this idea would be if Groudon was to cause every volcano erupted on Earth at the same time? While my answer is relatively brief because you don’t want to bore an audience with a long interview, my mind kept going back to my answer, thinking of new reasons for how bad things would turn out. And because I can’t stop the curiosity inside of me, I have decided to give this question a second go, but this time as in depth as I can possibly come up with.

Groudon, I choose you!

Pokémon: Mega Evolution Special III

One Problem at a Time

Trying to imagine the total chaos and destruction that would ensue if every single volcano on the planet erupted at the same time is extremely difficult. The easiest thing to do is start by looking at how bad individual hazards can be, and then stack all the hazards on top of each other. 

Molten Rock

When you think of volcanic hazards, the mind usually immediately jumps to lava. A near unstoppable force of molten hot rock. If lava starts flowing, the best you can do is grab your possessions and move out of its way. Seeing as this will be one of Team Magma’s most exploited feature of Groudon to achieve their ridiculous goal of expanding the landmass, it is a great place to start. 

The last major outpouring of lava was the 2018 Hawaii fissure eruptions. Beginning on the 3^rd May, and lasting four months, the lava was supplied through numerous fissures. In total an estimated 35 km² of land had been covered by lava. Over 3 km²of this was new land that had been created in the Pacific. For the local human population, over 2,000 people have been evacuated and 700 homes engulfed. However, this eruption was only relatively small in comparison to many others.

Hawaii 2018 fissure eruptions. Source: Wikipedia

One of the crowning lava eruptions goes to Iceland’s Laki volcanic eruption in 1783. Unlike Hawaii’s 2018 eruption that spewed from several small fissures, Laki’s 1783 eruption resulted in a 25 km long fissure! Rising magma also interacted with groundwater, creating over 100 phreatomagmatic (water interacting with lava) craters that exploded from the ground. It is estimated the lava covered a staggering 2,500 km² of land! 

While lava does tend to flow at a decent walking pace, meaning we could easily outrun it if needs, there have been cases were lava with low enough viscosity – how sticky the lava is – can flow at insane speeds. This video of lava from Hawaii is both mesmerising and terrifying. Couple that with the large land areas it can cover like with Laki, and lava soon becomes a serious problem. 

Burning Clouds of Death

Next up we have one of the most extreme volcanic hazards of all, pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) are massive, dark bellowing clouds of scorching hot volcanic gases and molten rock that avalanche their way down volcanoes. While mostly gravity driven (flowing downhill), they can travel with such a force that they actually go up hills! And if you are to see a PDC heading your way, may the odds be ever in your favour. A single breath of the 1,000 °C gases will incinerate your lungs. 

Pyroclastic flow produced by Sinabung in 2017. Source: Endro Lewa

They can form in different ways, from a lateral blast that destroys the side of a volcano (Mt. St. Helens, 1980), the lava dome collapsing (Soufrière Hills, 1997), or when the ash plume above a volcano becomes unstable and collapses. One the most famous PDCs of all time is the 79AD eruption of Vesuvius. Formed by a collapsing eruption column, the PDC cemented itself into nearly every Roman history book after it buried the settlements of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Not only did the PDC produce so much material that it buried entire towns 15 km away from the crater, but it was so hot that one unlucky person in Pompeii had their brain turn to glass! As if pyroclastic flows weren’t scary enough… I hope Team Magma’s leader, Maxie is reconsidering at this point.

A Pompeii resident on display. Source: Ed McGowan, 2016

Going Out with a Bang

Sometimes volcanoes can explode with such a devastating force that they actually destroy themselves in the blast. The size of the explosion and the strength of the volcano’s slopes ultimately determine how much is lost. But in some cases, entire volcanoes are wiped from the skyline. The infamous 1883 eruption of Krakatoa obliterated two-thirds of the island in an eruption so explosive it claimed the title of the loudest natural sound ever recorded. 

Krakatoa eruption. Dotted area shows the island surface area prior to the 1883 eruption. Source: USGS

The most devasting part these sorts of explosions is the resulting debris avalanche. With tens to hundreds of km³ of material displaced, it can come crashing down across the nearby landscape with massive blocks of rock, destroying everything in their path. If such an avalanche crashes into the sea, they can form gigantic tsunamis (more on them later). 

But like a phoenix, volcanoes can rise from their ashes. Mt. St. Helens has a new lava dome. Where Krakatoa once stood now stands Anak Krakatoa – the child of Krakatoa. And there is also Volcano Island in the middle of Taal Caldera to name a few. 

Just Add Water

I’ve briefly mentioned how lava meeting water does not end well but let me expand on that. When water interacts with lava it quickly boils and rapidly expands. It is this rapid expansion of the water that results in dangerously explosive volcanic eruptions. Phreatic, or Phreatomagmatic eruptions can occur because magma either rises up into groundwater, seawater, surface water, or the water can seep through cracks in the earth, down into a magmatic reservoir. The latter is believed to be what caused the sudden Whakaari/White Island eruption at the end of 2019 that sadly killed 23 people who were visiting the volcano. 

Surtseyan eruption in Iceland. Source: Geology In

The Minoan eruption around 1600 BC was perhaps the most catastrophic phreatomagmatic ever recorded. Occurring on the Greek Island of what was once Thera, now called Santorini, the explosion devastated eventually led to the collapse of the mighty Minoan civilisation and is widely believed to have been the inspiration for the legend of Atlantis. 

Tsunamis, as mentioned earlier, are another major hazard that can have severe consequences for coastal locals. In the case of Krakatoa’s 1883 tsunami creating from the volcano’s destruction, the 30 m wave is believed to have caused 36,000 people across the Sunda Strait. The great wave was even felt as far away as South Africa. With many volcanoes around the world being in coastal locations they can easily create tsunamis that extend the deadly reaches of a single volcano.

The final water-based interaction with a volcano is what is known as a lahar. These are volcanic mudflows formed from the mixing of pyroclastic material, debris and water. The source of the water can take many forms, including crater lakes, melting of snow or glaciers and even heavy rainfall. One of the worst things about lahars is that they can be triggered years after the actual volcanic event, particularly in regions that experience intense wet seasons such as Mexico. 

Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Columbia caused devasting lahars after pyroclastic flows melted the mountain top glaciers. The resulting outwash swept through the town of Armero, killing over 20,000 inhabitants and thousands more in other nearby settlements, making it the deadliest laharic event of all time.

Lahars devastating regions around Nevado del Ruiz in 1985. Source: Jacques Langevin via Getty Images

Another major lahar-causing eruption occurring in 1991 when Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. The eruption created large volumes of ash and pyroclastic flows that blanketed the landscape. To make things worse, the eruption occurred just at the same time a typhoon passed over. Intense rainfall from the typhoon triggered numerous lahars that killed hundreds nearby, caused billions of damages in infrastructure and clogged several major river systems. 

Aerial Assault

As if the volcanic assaults from the land and sea weren’t enough, volcanoes can throw tephra (small volcanic material) and gases high into the atmosphere. Depending on the height, these can end up travelling across large portions of the earth, causing severe health problems on a global scale and even worst problems. 

Volcanic ash is a major aerial problem. Ash is commonly mistaken for being like soft flour. In reality they are tiny, sharp pieces of volcanic glass that were formed when the magma was violently ripped apart in the eruption. After knowing this you can now understand why being out while volcanic ash falls is such a bad thing. Not only irritating your eyes, but it can also play havoc with your lungs.

Ash particles under a microscope. Source: Reddit

Iceland’s 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull hit the headlines after producing so much ash that it shut down the airspace over Europe. Such quantities were produced because of an overlying glacier that melted. The subsequence water flowed into the volcanic crater, mixing with the magma and causing the eruption to become much more explosive, fragmenting the material into ash. Coupled with a strong, south-western wind, Europe was forced to cancel all its flights. Thankfully there were no casualties associated with the eruption, but the economic impact relating to the flight industry was heavy. It also illustrates how far reaching the effects of volcanic ash can be if it is able to reach high enough into the atmosphere!

Ash coverage over Europe from Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. Source: Met Office, UK

Ash is such a problem to aircrafts and other vehicles because the ash is melted in the heart of the engines. Once molten it can then stick to the sides of the engines or turbines, clogging them up and leading to system failures. While this does not directly harm humans or animals, it does add an additional problem to Team Magma’s plans. They will seriously affect the economy on a global scale in numerous ways, leading to a total economic collapse!

An additional problem with ash – beyond health and aircraft issues – comes into play when the ash settles. In small quantities ash can blanket vegetation, destroying crops. It can also get into water supplies, poisoning local drinking water. 

In larger quantities ash can pile up into such thick layers that roofs can collapse under its weight. Mt Pinatubo reported to have over 850 deaths linked to collapsing roofs during its 1991 eruption. Rain can also make the ash clump together, adding to the weight. But it can also trigger lahars as the loose ash gets washed away.

Houses buried in extremely thick layers on ash produced by Mt Pinatubo, 1991. Source: USGS

There is even the potential, that if enough volcanic ash is ejected into the air that it can block out the sun! Tambora produced the largest volcanic eruption on record. In 1815 the powerful eruption blew roughly 150 km³ of ash, pumice and aerosols (more about them in a bit) into the air. This ultimately blacked out the skies and caused widespread panic.

What’s That Smell?

It is not just tephra that is blown into the air during an eruption. Volcanoes also release vast quantities of gases. For many of these volcanic gases, they can be harmful to life in high volumes as we’ll see.

Sulphur dioxide (SO₂) is perhaps the major volcanic gas produced. Starting the problems off, it can mix with water vapour in the atmosphere, causing acid rain which is an irritant to eyes, skin and respiratory systems. Revisiting the Laki eruption in 1783, it is estimated 122 million tonnes of SO₂ was released into the atmosphere! Just like with the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, winds blew the toxic gas towards Europe. The thick cloud, known as ‘Laki Haze’, killed thousands. Humans and livestock suffered together. As crops and animals died a severe famine set in. The famine caused by Laki is believed to be one of the final ‘nails in the coffin’ for the outrage that triggered the French Revolution.

As if the SO₂ wasn’t bad enough on the ground level, the high reaching gases reacted with water in the atmosphere to form sulphuric acid aerosols. The aerosol is extremely good at reflecting the sun’s heat back into space, resulting in the temperature dropping 1°C in the Northern Hemisphere. Similar cooling effects have been linked to other volcanic eruptions in the past. Mt Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption saw global cooling of 0.5°C. And Tambora took things even more to the extreme with a roughly 3 °C drop in global temperatures, in the event that became known as ‘The Year without Summer’. Widespread crop failure from the cold led to extreme famine and the death of thousands worldwide!

Volcanic winter. Illustration of the cooling effect on the climate of a volcanic eruption. Sunlight (yellow arrows) is being reflected by the clouds of ash ejected into the stratosphere. Source: SciencePhotoLibrary

It is slightly ironic that Team Magma’s plan of heating up the planet to evaporate the oceans and create more land could be offset by their other land-making method of volcanic eruptions. But SO₂ is not the only volcanic gas. CO₂ is also emitted from volcanoes. While volcanic eruptions do not produce nearly as much CO₂ as we humans do, it is theorised that the release of the greenhouse gas from volcanoes can help to rebalance the cooling effect of the SO₂, just at a much slower rate. Therefore, we could eventually see global warming sometime after the initial eruptions.

Volcanic eruptions can also release small quantities of other toxic or harmful gases such as CO, H₂S, HF and HCl. While these gases don’t tend to be as much of a problem during singular events, the global eruption of every single volcano would create concentrations that would be severe enough to cause death on a global scale. 

The Big Guns

Tambora is estimated to have killed up to (and maybe even more than) 71,000 people worldwide. But this is a very difficult number to calculate given the global scale of the event. Also, because of Tambora’s effect on the global climate, it is argued as to what cause of death is to be associated with the volcano, and which had only slightly volcanic assists. One way or another, this was still a very devasting eruption. 

But Tambora is still just a B-list volcanic eruption. For the A-listers, we need to look at the supervolcanoes. These heavy hitting super-eruptions are without a doubt the greatest, most violent volcanic events on Earth.

Pokémon: Mega Evolution Special II

Toba was one such A-lister. 74,000 years ago, the supervolcano erupted with such a force that it is theorized the eruption created a volcanic winter that could have lasted six years. The harsh climatic change even led to such a reduction in the global human population it caused a genetic ‘bottleneck’ – a drastic reduction in the genetic variation within a species – with some believing there were only 10,000-30,000 of us left in the world. 

However, recent research into the eruption is now suggesting the climatic change was not as extreme as previously believed, and that global temperatures actually bounced back much faster, meaning the human race did not come close that to extinction.

Obviously, I cannot talk about a volcanic apocalypse without mentioning Yellowstone. The infamous caldera volcano is fed by a volcanic hotspot, similar to that of Hawaii. Along the great Yellowstone hotspot track there have been several enormous volcanic eruptions. In the past 2.1 million years alone there have been three super-eruptions that produced over 1000 km³ of volcanic material. And while there has not been such a major eruption since the last one 640,000 years ago, the hydrothermal system underneath the caldera reminds us that Yellowstone is not done yet.

Yellowstone’s biggest question is always “what will happen if it was to erupt?”. Because a volcanic eruption on the scale of Yellowstone has not happened in recorded human history, determining what will happen is down to educated guessing. 

The ash and volcanic gases would follow Toba’s example and possibly cause a long-spanning volcanic winter (if that is what truly happened). Even so, the ash would blanket vast amounts of America. Plants and crops would surely die. Livestock and humans would not only suffer from the famine, but also health issues from inhaling the ash particles and drinking contaminated water. More locally, pyroclastic flows would scorch and alter the landscapes beyond recognition in all of the surrounding states. 

The Deadly Slow Burn

One final volcanic event I want to cover are Large Igneous Provinces, or LIPs. These are very rare on earth, but maybe if Team Magma use Groudon’s Primal form, it could have the power to create one. And if it did, things would get even worse for us all!

Pokémon: Mega Evolution Special III

As the name suggests, these events produce vast areas in igneous material on a scale that dwarfs what has been previously mentioned. While they do take longer to form than normal volcanic eruptions – a couple of million years on average – they can have dramatic consequences for life on Earth. 

It is too much of a coincidence that two LIPs happen to share the same date as two of the six Mass Extinctions. The Siberian Traps in Russia dates back to the P/T extinction 250 million years ago, when an estimated 70-80% of species went extinct. And the Deccan Traps in India dates back to 66 million years ago, leading some to believe it could be a contributing factor – along with the meteorite impact – that caused the dinosaur’s extinction. 

Whether or not Groudon would have the power to create a LIP would be questionable. It would also be up for debate if we survive long enough for a full LIP to develop. I guess we’d just have to wait and see. 

Bringing it all together

Throughout this piece I have tried to discuss each problem separately. In reality many volcanic features are produced at the same time, or lead to another, compounding the destruction of a single eruption. For example, Krakatoa’s 1883 eruption had violent phreatomagmatic submarine (in the sea) explosions, coupled with subaerial (above the sea) explosions. In addition, massive pyroclastic flows swept out across the sea to other nearby islands. Ash rained down on those both near and far. And then for the crescendo, the decimating blast that tore the island apart. The subsequent debris avalanche triggering the famous tsunami… 

Numerous volcanic hazards that can occur within a single volcanic eruption. Source: WorldlyWise Wiki

All in all, it is easy to see why volcanic eruptions are so terrifying when you think this is just a single event. And while it is true that not every volcanic eruption is as bad, the ones we mention here do show off their extreme power. Now let’s try and imagine what would happen if you have every single volcano erupt at once, big and small… 

Global 1-Hit KO!

There are roughly ~1,500 potentially active volcanoes on Earth for Groudon to trigger. Evenly spaced out across the world (with the exceptions of central Russia and Greenland), if all 1,500 were to erupt at once it is fair to say there are few places that would be safe. 

Interactive map of every known active volcano on Earth, represented by a single coloured point. Source: National Geographic 2020

It is estimated that ~500 million people live within close radius of a volcano, meaning that a very large number would have little time to evacuate and get to a safer location if Team Magma’s plans succeeded. The biggest risk would be of the pyroclastic flows burying the unsuspecting world population. However, they would also have to face the pouring lava, projectile lava bombs and ash raining down on them, just as an initial threat. Some may even be so unfortunate that they witness a collapsing volcanic slope.

With many of the Earth’s volcanoes being located within the Pacific Ring of Fire it is likely that many of the 500 million volcanic locals would be at a very high risk of tsunamis.

Further still, with all the ash choking the atmosphere, the falling pumice floating on the ocean and the towering tsunamis battering ports, trying to evacuate via air or sea would be near impossible. Many planes would have their engines clogged if they attempted to fly. 

For the rest of the world who live out of range of the devasting PDCs, lava, flank collapses and tsunamis, they shouldn’t think they are safe. The sheer volume of ash and volcanic gases released would not olny poison the air we breathe, but also the SO₂ aerosols would drive the Earth into a volcanic winter unlike anything we’ve any seen in the rock records. 

Groudon does has have sunny day abilities ‘drought’ and ‘desolate land’, which intensify the sun’s output (so to speak). With this, it may be able to reverse the volcanic winter. Coupled with the immense CO₂ output from the volcanoes, the planet would surely bake to death. 

Artists representation of the Archean eon (primal earth), which is probably what things would look like when all dies down after Groudon’s Total Eruption. Source: EGU Blogs

Widespread vegetation loss, including crop failure, and livestock poisoning from the volcanic material would lead to global famine.  On top of that, a lack of global transport would mean no supporting aid from other countries, leaving every country to defend for itself.

If you thought food sources would be safe in the ocean than you’d be mistaken. Sure, we could fish for food once the tsunamis have stopped churning things up. But it wouldn’t last for long. The volcanic gases, particularly the SO₂ and CO₂, would dissolve into the seas, decreasing the pH. This acidification of the oceans would have catastrophic effects on the wildlife. Calcific organisms, from foraminifera to corals, molluscs to crustacean would perish, significantly weakening the oceanic food chain. 

Chemical reaction of CO2 triggering ocean acidification and damaging calcific organisms. Source: NAOO

So how bad is Team Magma’s plan?

All in all, it is safe to say there is very little life on Earth that would be able to survive Groudon’s total eruption. There are some amazing extremophiles out there, so I have no doubt something will be able to survive. 

That being said, we humans would most likely not, along with many other species. If the volcanoes don’t get you outright, then the toxic gases might poison you instead. If not the gases, then the extreme weather changes (whether the planet freezes or burns) might be the end. And to those hardy enough to last longer, then the worldwide collapse of food chains would result in death by starvation.

There is very little benefit from this plan. Team Magma’s idea was that we need land to live on, and if they provide it then we will be able to expand further. While they will definitely achieve the goal of expanded landmass, I highly doubt there will be many organisms around to live on it. 

For any Team Magma followers out there reading this, please tell Maxie. If he doesn’t realise how bad an idea he has after reading this, I will send a 10-year-old after him! You have been warned Maxie. 

Pokémon: Mega Evolution Special III

Volcano-videogame inventory

For those of your who are new to this page, Welcome! This is where we (Jazmin Scarlett, Ed McGowan & Nadine Gabriel) review the volcanism within your favourite mainstream video games, highlighting what they get right and correcting what they get wrong!

It’s been awhile since the Inventory was updated and we’ve covered a lot of volcanism in video games since then, so its about time we added all the new completed reviews to the list.

If anyone has any suggestions of games for us to review, or you would like to review some yourself, please feel free to get in contact with us! We are open to all ideas and contributions.
Similarly, if you have your own theories on the volcanism in the games we’ve reviewed, drop us a comment.

Complete

• Spyro: The Reignited Trilogy
• Lego (Marvel Superheroes 2 & DC Supervillians)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• The Geology Game
• Subnautica
• Pokémon Silver
• From Dust
• Minecraft
• Pokémon Emerald
• Monster Hunter: Generation Ultimate
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Hot Lava
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• Immortals: Fenyx Rising
• New Pokémon Snap

In progress

Assassin’s Creed Origins/Odyssey

Crash Bandicoot Trilogy

The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim and Online)

Sea of Thieves

Borderlands series

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (part 2)
– This will be an extension of the first review as there is still much to cover, and not to be confused with a review of BotW2 (although that will be reviewed when its released)

To-do list

• Mass Effect series
• Dragon Age series
• Legend of Zelda series
• Starfox Adventures
• Pokémon series
• Sonic the Hedgehog series
• Super Mario series

Happy gaming 😊🎮🎲

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: a volcano-videogame review

Hello fellow videogame and volcano friends. I wanted to share this with you sooner, but I have been super busy and recovering from passing my PhD viva, doing my corrections and teaching duties…I also have a load of new games.

Anyway, The Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Absolutely loved this game. In part due to  loving the trilogy but also the ethical questions raised in being a coloniser and just taking stuff without understanding it (although Lara did turn it around in the end). Also because of the geohazards presented. Not only was there volcanic eruptions (and related hazards) but also tsunamis and earthquakes.

Like Spyro, Lego, BoW and others, areas of the game were revisited, and walked through the feasibility of the volcanism presented using the following criteria out of 10, 1 being unrealistic and 10 being realistic:

1. Aesthetics
2. Accessibility
3. Viscosity
4. Death
5. Overall plausibility

Revisiting this game was tricky in places, as there are certain places you cannot return to because they have either been destroyed or I forgot where they were. So, I did as many as possible post-main storyline, where places were almost free of people/hungry animals wanting to kill Lara, but as this is a Tomb Raider game, the environment still had it out for her. For others, such as the tsunami/earthquake/volcanic eruption/lahar sequences, I did new game plus. So took a little longer than I would have hoped.

Before I go raiding however, I would like to introduce to you a feature I want seen in all future games: the photography mode.

Just by pausing the game, you can choose the photography mode option in the menu and you are given many options to get the perfect screenshot. Not only is there a field of view and depth perception options, there is saturation, contrast, brightness and filter options. I can hide these options with “Y” and then because these images are saved in game, I just used the Xbox’s screenshot function to get the best images. More like this please!

Results of my volcano raiding adventures: logical with a dash of “not possible”.

Because I love maps, almost the first thing I do when I start a new game, is look at the in-game map. When I saw this for a first time, my reaction was “ooohhh yes, when is the eruption?!” Turns out I had to wait a while.

During the prologue portion of the game, Lara and her friend Jonah are exploring in Mexico. The geohazards journey begins when Lara comes across a legend depicting a sequence of “cataclysms” in the form of a tsunami, storm, earthquake and a volcanic eruption.

I like this, as I have an interest in an area of research called “geomythology”. I touched upon in my From Dust review. After existing the tomb and getting into a scuffle with the main antagonist, the first geohazard occurs.

 

I cannot speak from experience, but tsunamis are a terrifying hazard. I think this sequence captures it well. There plenty of opportunities to kill Lara if not timing jumps right or you bump her into something you were not supposed to.

It is possible to survive them, but chances are not very high, mainly due to the force of the water and the many obstacles in the way. I talk more about them in my From Dust review.

Next part of the game, Lara and Jonah travel to Peru, but crash land in the jungle due to a storm that “came out of nowhere”. That was the second foreseen hazard. I shall skip onto a sidequest tomb I explored, I found the geology quite interesting. In this tomb, it was beneath(?) an old location where oil was extracted.

Oh and it also had wolves in it. It reminds me of the Darvaza Gas Crater in Turkmenistan. Which is related to methane gas deliberately set on fire since 1971 and is still ongoing. Not oil, but it just reminded me of it. This is certainly beyond my expertise, maybe oil does behave like this? Another location, part of the main quest, has pools which maybe oil or not, which are constantly on fire.

Another sidequest tomb had natural pockets of sulphur dioxide (as Lara remarks “uhh it smells like rotten eggs”), which can be set on fire and cause some explosions. Whilst I question how people managed to construct something to concentrate the gas, it is entirely realistic to have pockets of natural gas, as societies extract them for energy.

Next hazard was the earthquakes, first when I reach a main quest tomb:

I have to hand it to Lara, she somehow knew that it was a foreshock? There were 2 foreshocks, before the larger, final earthquake happened within this sequence:

I think my confusion here is the terminology used, as it conflicts with what the earthquakes were described as in the next area of San Juan’s Mission. In this area, right in the shadow of a volcano , people describe the earthquakes as volcanic tremors. Tectonic earthquakes and volcanic earthquakes are different.

They mainly differ because of their origins: whilst tectonic earthquakes are the result of tensions within the plate tectonics and fault lines, volcanic earthquakes are related to magma movement, the fractures they cause but also strong volcanic explosions. Of course, it can be hard to distinguish between the two without the proper instruments, the perceptions and life experiences people have had.

Approaching near the end of the game and emerging from a tomb, the volcano just is…erupting. With no other earthquakes or signs that its activity was increasing. It was confusing. From the following screenshots, you can see it is a kind of eruption that would not go unnoticed. Or it is maybe because Lara was underground in between the earthquakes and the eruption taking place. I do not know, I feel like something was missing in letting me know that a full on eruption was happening.

Critiquing the eruption itself, there are some good elements and some missing opportunities. Good thing: the eruptive column. It dominates the sky, it does appear to drift in the direction of behind the volcano, making that part of the sky dark. The lava fountaining is also realistic, but I do wonder if certain hazard processes are missing here. The shape of the volcano is similar to Mt. Mayon in the Philippines. This video has shows the features I think are missing. Namely a little bit more lava spatter but also pyroclastic density currents (PDCs). But, perhaps they could have occurred behind the volcano where we cannot see? PDCs can travel down a defined river valley path but also blanket the flanks of volcanoes.

One thing I neither fully agree with or disagree with is the depiction of ashfall. What is different compared to games reviewed so far (apart from Pokémon Emerald), is that ash actively represented. What I do question is all the little specks of embers. Volcanic ash is not as incandescent as what is shown here. On the same note, Lara and all others in the area, should have been wearing eye and breathing protection. Volcanic ash are tiny particles of rock and if inhaled, can cause serious respiratory problems and an irritant to your eyes. Nonetheless, it is the most realistic in what has been reviewed to date.

After fighting a bunch of people and losing the artefact to the antagonist of the game, something unexpected happened. Interestingly, this earthquake (and there was a distant sound of an explosion) happened first:

And then this:

A lahar! Lahars are volcanic mudflows: slurry mixtures of volcanic material, debris and water (or ice). Generally was surprised that this was put into the game but the rest of the sequence…I had questions. First is that this begins in a street. Has this place been built on an old river channel? If so, that is serious neglect of land-use planning. If not…I do not know, volcanologists should have mapped this area and produced a hazard map. The lahar does seem like the right consistency, then again, lahars have different categories depending on the ratio of water and sediment content. You may also see a volcanic bomb just before the camera pans around. I cannot tell what the distance from the volcano to Lara’s position is, but generally speaking, volcanic bombs do not travel beyond 5km from a volcanic centre – mainly because they are too heavy to travel any further.

Second issue I had are the huge gaps that appear in the ground? I honestly cannot explain if and how it is connected to the volcanic eruption and the lahar. Maybe loads of sinkholes just happened coincidentally?

Actually, this was the biggest issue I had with the lahar sequence. I cannot understand it at all.

Last issue was how the sequence ended. There just happened to be a coastal area nearby, some debris flowed out with the lahar and then it just…ends? It was quite a substantial lahar, I think it would carry on pouring into the coastal area for a lot longer than it did.

That was the last of hazards in the main game. But, there are two DLC (downloadable content) called “The Forge” and “The Grand Caiman”, where volcanism returns. The Forge started it off when you first arrive in an area where you fight off some wolves:

After a bit of navigating the environment, Lara reaches the main puzzle area:

Exploding sulphur dioxide pockets also feature, which are used to turn the central tower. I am intrigued how a wood, metal and brick could endure the lava and extreme heat for so long, however the base of the tower seems to be constructed into the local rock. I am also uncertain how far below ground we are, but is it possible to reach a cave system that has a lava lake area? I do not think we have real life examples to help us with that answer.

The second DLC was more interesting. We have a volcano in eruption, but the ashfall is more realistic. Moreover, Lara reacts to the ash but putting her hand over her mouth and coughing. In fact, it causes damage to her.

She is seriously under prepared in exploring in these areas.

However, further into the DLC quest tomb we hit familiar territory:

And with that, let us have the verdict on The Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s representation of volcanism (and other hazards).

1. Aesthetics
   • 9 – It is unmistakably a beautiful game in an environment made to be as believable as possible. Texture on the lava appears accurate with the darkened patches related to cooling.
2. Accessibility
   • 8 – If the invisible boundaries are not there, then falling into the lava is possible. The tsunami and lahar sequences put you right into the action, so highly accessible on purpose. The earthquakes and volcanic eruption are mainly for driving the story forward and are background imagery.
3. Viscosity
   • 6 – This was hard to determine, but as per usual in videogames, it appears too runny.
4. Death
   • 9 – If you know your Tomb Raider games, then the death sequences are sometimes too graphic. In all sequences apart from the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions can you be killed by the hazards. However, and I apologise that I did not record a clip to show, if you fall in lava, you simply just disappear. Lahar was a bit more realistic by sinking into it.
5. Overall plausibility
   • 8 – The game’s environment was made to be believable, so the hazards tried to be too. Whilst I have some issues with the earthquake and lahar sequences, overall, it does a pretty good job in my opinion.

There you have it, very long overdue. I hope it was enjoyable! I will not be reviewing for a while now, but hopefully will be back reviewing next year. There are plenty of volcano-videogame reviews if you have not already seen them:

• Spyro Trilogy
• Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 and Lego DC Supervillains
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Subnautica
• Pokémon Silver
• From Dust
• Pokémon Emerald
• Monster Hunter: Generations

Happy gaming 🙂

Monster Hunter: Generation Ultimate – a volcano-videogame review

Welcome back volcano-videogame friends, Ed McGowan is back with another review for a little known series called Monster Hunter.

***

*In my best John Hammond impression* Welcome, to Monster Hunter!

This is the ultimate game where Jurassic Park meets Japanese anime (very literally in the case of the MH anime), where the aim is to run across various landscapes, hunting down a multitude of dinosaurs and dragons, and repeatedly smashing them over the head with an oversized sword, club, or axe in my case (love a good switch axe).

Just like any fantasy exploring game, especially one that has literal dragons, each of the Monster Hunter installments has its own active volcanic region. All are amazingly decorated with the franchise’s signature visuals, containing flowing lava rivers and exploding volcanic peaks. In Monster Hunter Generation Ultimate (the ‘ultimate’ is MH’s way of saying ‘+’ or ‘2.0’) there are two main volcanic regions to explore. The first is accessible upon reaching level 4. The other is not available until level 8! Because it takes long enough to reach level 4 (let alone 8). I shall focus this review on the first volcanic region and leave the second region for another review.

Once again, as with all our other previous reviews, the game will be reviewed using a criteria out of 10, 1 being unrealistic and 10 being realistic for:

1. Aesthetics
2. Accessibility
3. Viscosity
4. Death
5. Overall plausibility

Results: Visually stunning. Biodiversity interesting. Volcanic accuracy? Not quite.

The aptly named ‘Volcano’ region in MH is one of my favourite places to quest. First arriving on a small white sandy beach within a small cove (Fig. 1), this actually kicks off the volcanic inaccuracies within this game. The cliffs that surround the cove are made up of dark grey rock (presumably lava) and the further inland you go, the darker the rocks get. Natural beaches are nearly always made up of the local rocks, eroded out of the surrounding cliffs and washed back and forth along the beach to produce the sand. This means that beaches do not have to be your standard sandy white. In circumstances like this on volcanic islands, the beaches are often black! Where the sand originates from the erosion of the local dark, mafic lavas. One of the most famous real-world examples is Hawaii, that has many black sand beaches (Fig. 2), and even green ones comprised of small olivine crystals eroded out of the nearby lava!

Fig. 1a Landing on the volcano’s sandy beach

Fig. 1b Wave ripples in the sand from high tide

Fig. 2 Hawaii’s famous black sand made from the erosion of the local basaltic lava

Venturing into Zone 1, the walls are made up of several volcanic rock layers (Fig. 3). It is unclear if these are successive layers of lava stacked up over numerous eruptions, or if they are successive pyroclastic flow deposits known as ignimbrites. Pyroclastic flows are terrifying clouds of extremely hot ash, gases and volcanic rocks that barrel down volcanic slopes at amazing speeds (they can move at 200 m/s!). Chances are you would have seen one in the latest Jurassic World movie, however, I am sorry to announce Chris Pratt should have died when he was engulfed in the cloud. The hot gases alone would have incinerated his lungs.

Fig. 3a

Fig. 3b

Fig. 3c

Based on the ~10+ ft deep incised paths and even deeper cavern through the layers I am more inclined to believe these are ignimbrites (Fig. 3). Lava is a notoriously stubborn rock to erode out paths like this. Ignimbrites on the other hand, are most up of volcanic sediment and boulders that were mixed up in the density cloud, meaning they can often end up as a sort of poorly consolidated soil. This makes them much easier to erode, especially if rain falls on the volcanic slopes, as  it rushes down as a lahar (a volcanic mudflow) that carve out deeper and deeper riverbeds with each flow. Here is an example of a lahar-cut pyroclastic deposit I had the amazing opportunity to see (Fig. 4a) and a lahar along another deposit (Fig. 4b), both around Volcán de Colima, Mexico.

Fig. 4a A deeply cut section into a PDC

Fig. 4b An active lamar rushing past through a PDC!

In Zone 2 we get our first look at a definite lava flow! A glowing red looking mulch of an active lava flow (Fig. 5a), stuck in a constant motion of advancing forwards, but never making it any further due to the way the game was programmed with fixed maps. A path to Zone 3 looks to be a lava tube (Fig. 5b), the hollowed outer shell of a previous lava flow, where the internal, still molten lava passed through. The lava tube also directly lies on top of the layered rocks (on the right of my character’s head), showing a distinctly different texture. This adds further support to my belief the layers are successive ignimbrites.

Fig. 5a

Fig. 5b

Advancing further inland (in any direction) and the scenery changes dramatically. The greys become black and lava is everywhere, glowing a bright reddy-orange. The lava comes in two forms: 1) black advancing lava (Fig. 6) lava rivers/lakes (Fig. 7).

Fig. 6a

Fig. 6b

Fig. 7a

Fig. 7b

Fig. 7c

Fig. 7d

The advancing lava seen in Fig. 6 is a very common occurrence, where the outside has cooled to a solid black rock with patches of still hot molten liquid. This forms a very rough, craggy texture called A’a lava. Fig. 8 is an example of such lava from Parícutin volcano in Mexico that erupted between 1941-52. Here is also a video from YouTube of a’a lava advancing across a road in Hawaii during the 2018 eruptions, which brilliantly shows how the lava cools and crumbles as it moves forward. Due to MH’s graphics, this rough texture has been smoothed over. Also, because of the map being set to fixed dimensions the lava doesn’t advance otherwise after a few missions Zone 2 would be hard to run through. Instead the molten lava inside is animated to look like it is trying to advance.

Fig. 8

Lava rivers and lakes also occur in the real world, and are a spectacular site, as shown in this BBC clip! However, as seen in the clip, the lava flowing in the rivers has a thin black skin (like on a cold soup) of cooled lava. The only orange parts seen are in freshly exposed sections that have yet to be cooled by the open air.

Within MH they have made it so that you cannot walk on the lava, prevented so by an invisible wall. I therefore suspect that the developers removed the black ‘skin’ from the lava graphics to help these boundaries more easily visible. There is nothing more annoying than trying to dodge a monster’s attack and being unable to because of a hard-to-see obstacle!

After quite a trek you finally reach the heart of the volcano in Zone 6, where you can run up to the lower crater edge and stare into the upwelling molten liquid (Fig. 9). There are not actually many volcanoes with constantly sustained lava lakes in their crater in the world. And those that do tend to be shorter, shield volcanoes like Kilauea in Hawaii, or Erta Ale in Ethiopia (Fig. 10). Instead, with most strato-volcanoes (the taller, stereotypical mountain peak shaped) the lava within their crater solidifies, leaving a rocky pit (Fig. 10). When the volcano is active the lava is either slowly forced up by rising magma underneath forming what is called a ‘lava dome’, which looks like a giant, rocky mole hill, or, if the pressure under the solidified lava builds up enough the top can explode like a cork out a champagne bottle. Only in the latter scenario would you be temporarily able to see the molten lava within the volcanic crater. However, you would also see the lava being thrown in the air as either ‘spatter’ or more deadly volcanic bombs, along with the ash plume that we can see here in this one (Fig. 9).

There are other ways a volcano like the one here in MH can grow and erupt, such as lateral-blasts (Mt. St. Helens, USA) or sector collapse (Teide, Tenerife). But for the purpose of keeping this review short and not bore you too much, I will keep these for another review.

One of the interesting things with MH’s ash plume, which is better seen by continuing to Zone 8 (the crater summit), is the inclusion of a prevailing wind direction. This is mainly interesting because it is an animation feature that is missed out in many video game volcanoes (e.g. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2), where they simply have the ash plume rising directly upwards and outwards evenly in all directions.

MH’s ash plume being blown to one side is an accurate representation of what occurs in the real world, where the wind is blowing strong enough to direct the ash. However, this normally occurs higher up where the plume reaches maximum height, or the wind is stronger than the heat that is forcing the ash straight up. This was perfectly demonstrated in 2010 by Iceland’s famous eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.  In this case a south-westerly wind blew all the ash towards Europe, causing a major hazard to all the planes engines within Europe’s airspace. Funnily enough though, the airspace over Iceland was not shut down to planes approaching from America in the East as none of the ash was directed that way.

And this volcano is not the only one that shows a prevailing wind direction. Looking out away from the main volcano others can be seen with massive plumes blowing to the NE (Fig. 11a). In other maps within the game there are other active volcanoes, also with directed plumes (Fig.11b-c).

Fig. 11a

Fig. 11b

Fig. 11c

Now that we have managed to travel from Basecamp on the beach all the way to the summit of the active volcano, it is time for the scores.

Aesthetics: 6.5

The aesthetics of the deposits in the cliffs within the lower zones is texturally very nice. The lava takes a few points deduction due to the rounding of the texture on the end of the lava flows in Zone 2 & 9, and a lack of a black ‘soup skin’ of cooled lava. However, the rest is fairly accurate. Points are also given back due to the wind direction visible in the ash plume.

Accessibility: 5

The volcano is limited in its accessibility as there are set areas you can visit, with only an image of the map filling the screen as you transition from area to area. You can only climb up certain cliffs within the area as well. However, the map does provide you 11 areas that you can run around and explore, all with their own unique look, showing off a range of volcanic features.

Viscosity: 3

This one was going to score fairly well until I thought a Rathalos (big scary dragon) that ran, crashed on and stood on top of the lava without sinking a millimetre. It would seem that dragons can walk on lava like Jesus could walk on water (Fig. 12).

For lava to have travelled as far away from the Central volcano all the way down to Zone 2 (possibly even right down to the Base camp if they are lava deposits and not pyroclastic deposits) then it has to have a very low viscosity. This is especially true if it is to flow like a meandering river in Zone 7. High viscosity lava is too sticky and unable to travel as far away from its source.

However, lava with a low viscosity doesn’t tend to result in explosive eruptions that cause fragmentation that produces ash. Therefore, the lava’s viscosity does not match the massive plume being produced at the crater, nor match with the idea that there are pyroclastic deposits in Zone 1…

Low viscosity volcanoes also tend to be a flatter type of volcano known as shield volcanoes. These grow outwards more than they do upwards, and so look like a shield lying flat. Higher viscosity volcanoes, because the lava is unable to travel away from its source as well as low viscosity, grow into taller strato-volcanoes.

Despite the contradicting viscosities, it is possible for a magmatic plumbing system to be so complex that volcanoes in the real world can produce both basalt (associated with low viscosity lava) and rhyolite (associated with high viscosity lava). Examples of such ‘bimodal’ systems can be found in the Tarawera Volcanic Complex, New Zealand (Leonard et al., 2002) and the Snake River Plain, USA (Morgavi et al., 2011). So there is some plausibility for the contradicting lava, unknown bedded deposits and the volcanoes shape in MH.

But then the Rathalos happened… Nothing that size, even if it has wings, could splash into lava and not sink straight in!

Death: 6

While you cannot be killed by the lava directly due to the invisible walls (which to be honest is realistic because no one would be stupid enough to run over lava as molten as it is in this game), there are still environmental effects that can slowly kill you.

The first is the heat. As soon as you enter Zone 6 or 8 you must quickly drink a ‘Cool Drink’ to prevent taking heat damage. The heat also causes the avatar to start sweating and even keel over panting if you stand around too long without having had a drink (Fig. 13). ‘Cool Drinks’ may not be a real thing to allow volcanologists to walk around flowing lava without breaking a sweat, but it does highlight the importance of having a drink to stay hydrated in such a hot environment.

The other way you can take damage is if you stand on the hot surfaces at the edge of the lava/invisible wall (Fig. 14). These spots are so hot that not even a ‘Cool Drink’ can keep you safe. Although saying that, damage is slow, and my avatar didn’t seem to react at all to being burnt alive…

Overall plausibility: 4

I think with Monster Hunter they tried to combine too many aspects of volcanology into one area to up the dramatics and the level of hostility. As you increase through the levels the areas monster’s get tougher and deadlier, and therefore, so must the landscapes they live in.

While I do believe that there are many accurate representations in the game, such as the lava flow in Zone 2, the lahar carved trenches and the bellowing ash plume, I believe that all of these going on all at the same time is beyond the scope of what we see going on in the real world.

Once I get sufficient time, I will get around to reviewing the second volcanic region in MH, the Volcanic Hollow!

Don’t forget to check out our other volcanic video game reviews!!

From Dust: a volcano-videogame review

Hello, welcome back volcano-videogame enthusiasts. I am on the PC this time with a game I missed out on playing when I was younger, so was happy to pick it up and give it a go.

From Dust is a short but fulfilling “God” game mixed with survival. You are the “breath”, an omnipotent spirit/God that a masked indigenous peoples command to help them repopulate and survive across 12 unforgiving, hazardous islands. You use the mouse to move the breath around, and click the right button to pick up either certain plants that store water and then burst and can cause a flood if grouped together, or burst forth flames and cause a wildfire or explode when exposed to heat, creating craters. You can also pick up water, lava, earth and the village totem. With the left button, you either drop the object or the element.

You are up against a number of hazards: flooding, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and wildfires. With every village successfully built (if the terrain is not too flooded with water or lava), you gain “powers” drawn from the totem to help make the island more habitable for people. In addition, “shamans”, can be sent out to reclaim lost knowledge in how to keep their villages safe from lava and water, and when in action, these take the form of an instrumental ensemble. Once all villages are safely built, you have to make safe passage for 5 people to the next area via a subterranean cave.

Apart from the sadness by accidentally killing the people and/or destroying villages, this game demonstrates some parts of theory and practice in my area of social volcanology in the form of indigenous knowledge, geoculture and geomythology. I will explain these terms throughout the piece.

As per usual, I had a criteria out of 10, 1 being unrealistic and 10 being realistic:

1. Aesthetics
2. Accessibility
3. Viscosity
4. Death
5. Overall plausibility

Results: I could not complete the last level, but learned a lot.

There is quite a bit of lore within this game which you can unlock if you either find a “lore stone” and have a shaman go study it, or when you which 100 % on the vegetation metre, which slowly increases when your people plant seeds on the earth.

We as humans have been living on a hazardous planet for a long time, so we naturally accumulate information about our environment in order to continue survival. Some societies live well in these environments and some do not, it depends on loads of individual, household, community and national tolerance levels. “Indigenous” or “traditional” knowledge would include an understanding of important environmental factors that people would benefit from and know what “signs” to look out for, such as animals, geology, territory and vegetation, covered within this game.

In game, there are further examples of this knowledge, as well as “geoculture” and “geomythology”:

Geoculture refers to the cultural ways in which people cope with geohazards (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis), whilst geomythology are the stories, folklore, myths and legends surrounding recent to ancient hazardous (not necessarily geohazard) events. For example, some believe that the myth of Atlantis relates to an eruption of Santorini (Thera) during the Late Bronze Age and destroyed the Minoan settlement of Akrotiri. We do like to make things dramatic though, so more often than not, the stories you do hear are exaggerated in some way and the truth can be buried. Look no further then modern-day newspaper reports when any sort of hazardous event occurs or is forecast.

Let us jump into the level that first introduces us to tsunamis. I had built my first village in the level when the warning that the Shaman sensed the danger of tsunamis. I did not have long to find the “repel water” lore stone to protect the village. It was a close call between the Shaman getting back and teaching the villagers the song associated with repelling water and the tsunami arriving, but the village survived.

In reality, we cannot escape a tsunami in such a way. But they do occur with their signs. Tsunamis are rare and can be triggered a number of ways. They are triggered by either:

1. A high magnitude submarine earthquake for example, the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
2. Mass movement (landslide) either from land or sea.
3. Volcanic eruptions can also cause tsunamis from flank collapse (2018 Anak Krakatau), pyroclastic density currents entering the sea (1815 Tombora eruption) or associated landslides.

This is all down to what a difference between what a tsunami and a tidal wave is. Whilst a tidal wave is controlled by the gravitational pull of the moon/sun, a tsunami is generated when there is a large displacement of water.

In the game, the tsunami wave appears uniform and only singular, in reality, the waves can be numerous and of different heights and speeds. This what makes them particularly dangerous and unpredictable. However, besides our early warning systems, the most immediate visual sign to know that the first tsunami wave is coming is called “drawback”. This is when the water significantly recedes from the coastline. When this happens, the only solution is to seek high ground and preferably, the highest ground possible. Take the screenshots below when playing a level later in the game, the wave nearly tops the volcano. The highest recorded tsunami wave we know of is the 524 metres (1720 feet) wave that hit Lituya Bay in Alaska, after an earthquake and subsequent rockfall in 1958.

However, we can survive them. If the warning signs are heeded, we can act quickly and get to the highest ground possible. For indigenous knowledge, this even resulted in Simeulue Island in Indonesia surviving the 2005 Boxing Day tsunami.

I will now move onto the volcanism in this game, starting with my first encounter.

The volcano starts off a safe distance from the people, so was able to build the first two villages easily enough. However…then it erupted. And then kept on erupting and slowly, the lava flows were solidifying when it met the only bit of water between the villages and the volcano. Then of course, the lava started flowing over the older lava, leading to wildfires and chaos. But that was not all…the game decides to throw me into a panic and tell me a tsunami was coming. It was intense, to say the least (and this was not even the most difficult level!)

Lava reaching the sea and solidifying to create new land is widely documented, most recently with the 2018 eruption of Kilauea on Hawai’i. The small vent to the left of the larger volcano is also quite realistic. Smaller (or sometimes bigger) cones/mounds/domes/craters that form at the side or on the flanks of the main vent of a volcano are called parasitic cones. These are formed similarly to the main vent, whereby there is a weakened pathway for magma to ascend and sometimes can erupt either in unison or interdependently from the main vent. Here are some of the ones of Mt. Etna, Sicily.

Left to right: Monte Nova, La Ghetto, Old South East and New South East (Scarlett, 2014)

For another interesting look of the volcanism portrayed in this game, we move to another level, where one volcano is doing a lot of things.

Here is a volcano that has two parasitic cones and two fissure eruptions (left and right of the volcano) happening at the same time. The fissure on the left gets more problematic:

Fissure eruptions occur when there is a propagation of magma away from the main vent and then erupt, usually forming multiple linear fissure vents, sometimes also called “spatter” cones. Some examples of fissure eruptions from Iceland include the 2014 eruption of Bardabunga-Holuhraun and the 1783-1784 fissure eruption of Laki, whose magma source was from the volcano Grimsvötn. What is missing is the amount of volcanic gases these types of eruptions give off, which can be deadly. So much so, that the Laki eruption caused high mortality rates in Iceland and across Europe due to the widespread famine caused.

You think this was it and all I had to deal with, right? Well reader, it was not.

Although not as pronounced in the game, the outpouring of lava from the two parasitic cones reminds me of “breached cones”:

Breached cone of Mt. Etna (Scarlett, 2014)

Breached cones are the result of lava flowing out from underneath a cone, leading to the undermining and collapse, of the cone. Eruptions that produce some sort of cone, could be at risk of them becoming breached.

Eventually, once I had established settlements at all the totems, the volcanic activity suddenly stops and then it rained, quenching all the lava. I thought I was safe to send people onto the next area but nope. I got this message:

I will move on to a level that took way too many trial and errors to overcome, but had flooding as a more central part of the level. This one includes both flooding and a lot of lava happening side by side one another.

Most of the time, it was the breach of lava on the left that resulted in a game over screen. This was resolved by using the lava to build up a wall and channel the lava flow:

Barriers, either human-made or natural, can divert flow directions to a certain degree. For human-made barriers however, you cannot just stick a barrier in place. You would need to not only understand the rheology of the flow, its current and anticipated flow path, the effusive and cooling rate and among other physical volcanology properties. Then eventually, if you actually have the resources to build, place and maintain the structure(s).

After figuring out the volcano side, I then had to sort out the constant flooding side. With this I certainly paid attention to the topography and the dried riverbed in between the village and the totem. I mainly just had to form a barrier/path for the people. I was quite impressed with the topographic detail, more often than it, because of the way water can erode the landscape, it is sometimes easy to pick out a river valley not just on the ground, but by satellite too.

However, sometimes it can be hard to determine if you are situated in a flooding zone. This maybe because rainfall patterns have changed or like from the example in this level where it comes from a lake, water levels have dropped that they are a less rare occurrence. Essentially, a change in climate.

Natural hazard management in a multi-hazard context is complicated and takes a long time. On top of the multiple hazards one volcano can produce, it takes perseverance. But sometimes, resources are limited, so sacrifices (some known now, some later) have to be made. In the case of one my gaming sessions of this level, sacrificing one village to lava as one was being built in the bit closer to the flooding. It requires some serious decision making, weighing up the costs and benefits. This essentially what risk management is.

I will quickly move onto another bit of volcanism before finishing off on the last level. The second to last level starts on an isolated island, a small bit of lava erupting in the middle of the ocean and a message that something huge once happened here. Most of the lore/knowledge stones and totems were either fully submerged, or on isolated bits of land.

The eruption happening was slowly building up, and then another eruption started next to it. The difficulty was ramped up, so these eruptions were intense and built up quite quickly.

Even though they were relatively close together, both volcanoes became quite different things, and this is what is so interesting about volcanology in real life! Despite all the knowledge we know about how volcanoes behave, there is still so much we do not know.

The volcano on the left (cut off in the second image and in the background of the third image) erupted the most, forming a lava lake at one point but then built up at an astonishing rate, having continuous Strombolian activity with lava flows. The other volcano on the other hand, formed a crater lake (not to be confused with the volcano Crater Lake in the US) and then eventually, stopped erupting (extinct?) and became a water source.

Water tables, the boundary between saturated and unsaturated ground, are found within volcanoes just like anywhere else. Below the table, is called an aquifer but for a volcano, the top of the table is called a “phreatic zone”, if magma reaches this zone, you are likely to get hydromagmatic eruptions. This can naturally lead to river valleys and maybe crater lakes, like at Mt. Ruapehu in New Zealand.

So, last level displays another type of volcanism and one I have not had the chance to complete yet, because it was too difficult!

I was thinking, “Okay, no worries, the rain will not come straightaway, I can at least build one village”. Oh how I was wrong.

The rain and the water plants were relentless. It was more problematic than the lava. I was essentially in an active caldera crater lake, apart from there was nowhere for the water to drain. But, I would like to end on a real life example that has fascinated me ever since I learned about it.

On the Indonesian island of Java, lies a caldera called Tengger Caldera. Within it, are several volcanoes: Mt. Bromo, Mt. Batok, Mt. Kursi, Mt. Watangan and Mt. Widodaren. Only Mt. Batok is extinct and there was an eruption from Mt. Bromo earlier this year. What blows my mind is that within this active caldera, people live within it. Not only that, they thrive. My PhD was looking at coexistence and adaptation in the Caribbean, and I used Tengger as the positive aspects of achieving coexistence. It is down to many complex factors but overall, it is down to the geoculture, how they heed warning signs and how they turn a negative, into a positive.

After this long review, let us go through the categories and give a score out of 10.

1. Aesthetics: 7
   • It is a beautiful game, regardless of the “last gen” graphics. There is enough detail for the landscape and mechanics for water flow. For the lava, you do see a difference in colour with the outside of the flow being darker, meaning it is cooling, whilst the inside remains orange-red, to indicate that it is hot.
2. Accessibility: 6
   • You can direct the people closer to the volcano/lava but then a stop and turn around when they realise I am directing them to danger. Or sometimes, the terrain is too hard to traverse that they do not go at all. Smart.
3. Viscosity: 7
   • The lava flows are very runny and in my opinion too runny to be pahoehoe, but I can appreciate the rheology. The flows do interact with the surrounding terrain and topography.
4. Death: 8
   • There were numerous occasions where the people were swallowed up by the lava or swept away by a flood/tsunami. Whilst death by drowning is realistic for water, I am uncertain it would be quite the same for lava.
5. Overall plausibility: 8
   • Bringing together the different types of volcanism and landform features, plus the mechanics of how the tsunamis, floods and water behave with the landscape and topography, in addition to the people’s geoculture and geomythology, and even having a God/Spirit help protect them from harm, I would give it a pretty high score.

You have now reached the end of this review, which I believe is my longest to date. For other reviews by myself or guest blogger Ed McGowan click on the following:

• Volcano-videogame inventory
• The Geology Game
• Spyro the Dragon
• Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 and Lego DC Supervillians
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Subnautica
• Pokemon Silver

Until the next time, happy gaming 🙂

Jazmin

 

 

The Dark Geocultural Heritage of Volcanoes

*Content warning*

Near the end of this post when talking about Vesuvius is an image of skeletons.

Earlier this year, my first ever peer-reviewed journal article came out. This was the result of collaborative work as a visiting researcher in the archaeology department of Aarhus University, Denmark. I’m going to summarise the thought process behind the piece and what we focused on with the four volcanoes we chose.

How did it happen?

Well…the power of Twitter! Felix contacted me as he was interested in combining my knowledge of social volcanology with his interests in cultural heritage in some way. So with a little planning, I ended up living in Denmark for 5 months, working on this paper as well as finishing writing up my PhD, was fun.

Why dark/geo/cultural heritage?

From the start, we knew that volcanoes and their landforms have a special place in societal culture around the world. We revisited the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a United Nations report published in the early 2000s. The assessment was focusing on the consequences of ecosystem change for human wellbeing, looking at the different “services” ecosystems provide, but we decided to look at one particular area called “Cultural Services”. Cultural services of ecosystems provide more “invisible” and most of the time, immeasurable benefits for humans. This include education, aesthetics and sense of place.

When I looked at this graphic, I could see that volcanoes can fit into all of those subcategories one way or another. So, for the cultural heritage side of volcanoes, we kept this graphic in mind throughout. But we also wanted to keep in mind that heritage is also contested, and fed into the way we looked at geoheritage and dark heritage as well. This is because in some cases, it is clear that geo and dark heritage, are also contested.

For geoheritage, we kept it broad to include geoconservation, geotourism and geoethics as well. Volcanoes are essentially geological landforms, so it was important to understand what they represent in these disciplines. We wanted to focus on what makes volcanoes geoheritage, how can the geological features be persevered and used for educational purposes, the reasons why people engage in geotourism in volcanic areas and also any ethics attached to these sites, especially if volcanic eruptions had recently occurred and impacted communities in some way.

Lastly, Felix suggested I read up on dark heritage and dark tourism. And boy, it was fascinating. Dark heritage is related to places of human trauma and destruction of the built environment, whilst dark tourism is exploiting these sites for profit by having people visit. In the literature, many acts of violence in public and private spaces are considered as “dark”, for example: battlefield sites, abandoned prisons, places of genocide, assassination and even ghost walks. I recommend visiting the “Dark Destinations” portion of the Dark Tourism website to find out how dark on the “darkometer” scale sites are and just get lost in the dark history of some well known and not so well known sites around the world.

What was interesting is the reasons why people visit these sites. Most go to pay their respects to the deceased and learn the reasons why it happened. Some sites become popular because of TV series and movies. What is even more interesting is how these dark places are contested by being uncomfortable, unwanted and/or dissonant heritage for some (usually locals) but interesting attractions for tourists.

We kept the reasons into why people visit dark heritage sites, how they are contested and how can these places be used to educate in our minds. We believed through dark heritage, we found our way to bridge the gap between cultural and geoheritage, as volcanoes are naturally dark sites with the death and destruction they can cause.

Why these volcanoes?

We decided to suggest different reasons why Soufrière Hills Volcano on Montserrat, La Soufrière on St. Vincent, Vesuvius in Italy and Laacher See in Germany are good examples of dark geocultural heritage, by provide a few points for each and how they could be integrated. We decided to arrange them in chronological order from recent to deep history, with me focused on the Caribbean, whilst Felix focused on Europe.

I have always wanted to research Soufrière Hills, so jumped at the chance to focus on this volcano as the second Caribbean example to focus on. For the geoheritage, I focused on the volcanic hazard processes. For the dark heritage, the destruction of Plymouth and the legacy of colonialism was the focus whilst the cultural heritage, I chose an interesting perspective and focused on the significance of St. Patrick’s Day and how it connects those who were displaced by the volcano’s activity.

Plymouth, Montserrat (Brown, 1996)

As my PhD was looking at La Soufrière already, I focused on colonialism, slavery and the death and destruction caused by the volcano as dark heritage. For geoheritage, I focused on how the island, not just the volcano, provides great geological outcrops to show volcanic island processes but also the growing ecotourism sector of the island surrounding the rainforests and beaches. For the cultural heritage, I focused on the indigenous and archaeological sites.

La Soufriere Rainforest Trail (Scarlett, 2016)

Vesuvius and the 79 AD eruption makes Pompeii and the surrounding areas destroyed the perfect case study for dark geocultural heritage. Felix focused on the fascination and popularity of the archaeological sites of showing what it was like to be a Roman during those times as cultural heritage. For geoheritage, the focus was how the sites destroyed by Vesuvius helped the volcanology and archaeology disciplines develop. The dark heritage was the destruction and preservation of bodies.

Tourists taking pictures of Vesuvius 79 AD victims, Pompeii (Scarlett, 2018)

Lastly, Felix talked about the volcano he has researched: the Laacher See. This is a Maar Lake in Germany, and erupted near the end of the last Ice Age approximately 12,900 years ago. It was a caldera forming eruption, causing damaging local pyroclastic density currents. It also disrupted the social networks of European hunter-gatherers, effecting how tools were made. This was the focus of the dark heritage, whilst the surviving roman and medieval sites and underground beer storage were the cultural heritage. The geoheritage was the ignimbrite outcrops and the chronology of the event, as it provides great learning points for volcanologists.

Laacher See, Germany (Sauer, 2018)

What next?

I would love to explore this concept in more detail for other volcanoes, seeing how geoheritage and cultural heritage can be integrated and used for education through the notion of dark heritage. But only time (and money) will tell where this will be. I believe the “lessons learned” approach really does benefit not only locals and volcanologists, but can be a sombre reminder for tourists in how dangerous and beautiful volcanoes can be.

Jazmin

*Featured image taken by Tabassum (2019).

The Legend of Zelda: Volcano of the Wild

Hello everybody, we have our first guest blogger looking at the representation of volcanism in videogames! We have Ed McGowan taking us through the gorgeous environment of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild! Sit back and enjoy, it is awesome. If you want to have a go yourself, just let me know and I will give you the space here to write up!

***

The latest game in the Zelda franchise, Breath of the Wild (BotW) throws out the rule books of the semi-rigid storyline structure well known to all Zelda players. Instead, BotW was the flagship of the Nintendo Switch, and so designed to show off the full capabilities of their new console. With a map bigger than any of the previous games, BotW offers an open-world gaming experience with a Zelda skin, where you are free to climb any and every mountain, exploring every single nook and cranny possible, all the while reminded it’s a Zelda game by name drops of the Master Sword, Princess Zelda, Hyrule and more.

One such popular Zelda classic is the volcanic region, Death Mountain. Having appeared in 9 of the 19 Zelda games to date, this is one of the franchise’s most well-known landmarks. Usually Death Mountain is an average sized active volcano with a path up to the dungeon entrance that is found within the volcano itself. However, thanks to BotW’s developers focusing so much effort into creating gorgeous scenarios, this game’s Death Mountain is massive! And taking full advantage of the game’s open-world-ness I made sure to leave no molten rock unturned!

To keep in line with the other reviewed games, I’ve continued Jazmin’s criteria out of 10, 1 being unrealistic and 10 being realistic for:

1. Aesthetics
2. Accessibility
3. Viscosity
4. Death
5. Overall plausibility

Results: They really did pack this game with a lot of content…

Like with any volcanic area in a videogame, BotW couldn’t make it that easy to access Death Mountain thanks to the game’s new temperature feature. The closer to the volcano I got, the hotter things became. Soon my temp gauge reached 37°C, beyond this point the gauge breaks (saying ‘error’) and things quickly become a problem. The first is that any wooded weapons equipped ignites and if left burning for too long are destroyed… Remain here for a few more seconds and your clothes ignite, causing fairly quick health damage till death…If you teleport in at a closer distance to the lava lake or volcano itself then death is near instant.

Looking up the autoignition temperature (the temperature at which things spontaneously catch on fire) for oak (because the game has acorns), the US Department of Agriculture found that oak could last 30 seconds at 430°C before igniting. As for cotton (I assume that’s what the basic clothes are made of in this game), autoignition temps are also around 400°C, depending on how wet the cotton is. No wonder the temperature gauge breaks. Although a sudden temperature increase from 37°C to 400°C in a single step sounds a bit much.

The only way to bare the scorching temperatures is to at, first drink fireproof elixirs made of locally found fireproof lizards, which only last a couple of minutes, until better fireproof clothing (like the silver space-looking suit real volcanologists have to wear) can be purchased in the aptly named Goron City (home of the Gorons).

Now it’s truly time to explore!

Fig a.

Fig b.

Fig c.

First up is a look at the physical volcanology. One of the few obstacles met on the way to Goron City is a still hot lava flow (fig b), that has been channelled down the valley, covering the path. A simple climb up to continue on track, but still a nice sight to see.

Next up is the lava lake north of Goron City (fig c), fed by lavafalls from a second smaller lava lake that surrounds the main cone, like a three-tiered fountain! To me, it looks like each tier of the fountain is an old caldera (rim marked out in red lines on the map), now acting as a bowl to contain the flowing lava.

Volcanoes found within old volcanic craters are very common on Earth, forming after the caldera collapses and a new volcano dome begins to grow (e.g. Anak Krakatau, or volcano island inside Taal volcano). Here’s a time lapse of a lava dome forming within Mt St Helens’ crater:

Continuing further we finally reach the active cone of Death Mountain. When first reaching the mountain, it is very restless due to a ‘divine beast’ roaming around the crater (left flank of fig a), causing a plume of ash and lava bombs to be thrown into the air. Like with Jazmin’s review of Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, the ash plume from Death Mountain unrealistically rises up and evenly disperses in all directions instead of being blown in a prevailing wind direction.

Fig a.

Fig b.

Fig c.

The final physical volcanology aspect I found lies just NE of Death Mountain and was not something I expected to find, a tall pillar sticking up in the middle of a crater. Its purpose in the game is to act as a mini climbing challenge to reach the shrine on top (BotW’s mini dungeons), but how on earth would something like this realistically form?

One option is that it was part of the volcano that was flung in the air by a very powerful eruption, smashing to the ground and formed an impact crater. Very plausible…

The other option is that it is a volcanic plug, eroded out and exposed. These form when lava within the volcano’s vent cools, corking the volcano like a bottle of champagne. When the surrounding host rock is less resistant to erosion than the plug, they are often left exposed as tall pillars of volcanic rock. Examples of volcanic plugs can be found across the world. One of the most well-known examples is the Devils Tower in USA.

The other volcanic part of this game I want to quickly cover is the hazards posed to locals, as despite volcanoes being as deadly as they are, people still live within their shadow. In Death Mountain’s case it’s the Gorons.

Fig a.

Fig b.

Fig c.

Goron City is dangerous enough to human standards with its intense heat and rivers of lava flowing through the streets. But during the divine beasts rampage the ‘magma bombs’ (technically lava bombs because they’re above ground but I’ll let Krane off), are mentioned to be falling daily (fig b), which even to strong Gorons are a deadly hazard.

But why would they live in such a dangerous place, as is the case with so many people in real life? The reason is the rare ores they mine (fig c). Volcanic porphory deposits can host many riches such as copper, silver and even diamonds. As a result, people live in dangerous, volcanically active areas such as Chile and Bolivia for copper and silver.

But I suppose when Death Mountain is less active the risks are less severe, it is actually a nice place to live. Similar to Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, there are a few volcanic hot springs on Death Mountain that actually restore your health if you swim in them (but do keep your head above water unlike that little one).

1. Aesthetics: 10

• The game was designed to look beautiful, and I can’t deny they did a good job of it! From the flowing lava to the mountains themselves I can happily just stand and watch the scenery.

2. Accessibility: 10

• Again, the game was designed to be fully accessible, so you can literally go where ever you wish to. The only thing you can’t do is swim in the lava lake but that’s how it should be.

3. Viscosity: 7

• See Death and Plausibility.

Death: 7

• Whilst the fireproof clothing looks heavy enough, you sink into the lava like its water. Lava can be viscous, but I’m sure you’d sink a little slower than this.

• Also the massive jump from 37 to 400°C in one step mentioned at the start still gets me.

5. Overall plausibility: 8

• Death Mountain’s massive size and the sheer volume of lava produced is very big. A lava lake that size would soon start to cool and harden on the surface instead of remaining that molten. But the rest of the volcanism I can’t argue with.

***

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Ed will make another guest appearance in the future with a different game! I might be slow this month, but the next post written from me will be on The Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Happy gaming 🙂

Spyro: Spyro: The Questionable Volcanism Trilogy

Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 and Lego DC Supervillains: Lego Marvel-at-this-lava (and DC Supervillains)

Volcano-videogame inventory list: Volcano-videogame inventory

Lego Marvel-at-this-lava (and DC Supervillains)

If you have never played a Lego game, please do so. My first was the original Star Wars trilogy and it was a delight. Anyway, Lego has a small series surrounding the DC and Marvel comicbook universe, and the two most recent ones: Lego Marvel Superheroes 2 and Lego DC Supervillains are just great.

Lego Marvel has the storyline of the time-travelling villain Kang creating his own world by bringing different bits of the Marvel universe together (Xander, one of the cities in The Guardians of the Galaxy becomes neighbours with Post-Ragnarok Thor’s world Asgard). In the DC game, the Justice League’s evil counterparts, the Justice Syndicate, takeover and the villains try to stop them and in equal parts be jealous that they are better villains than them.

Volcanism was limited but still raised some interesting questions! As before, I had some criteria out of 10, 1 being unrealistic and 10 being realistic:

1. Aesthetics
2. Accessibility
3. Viscosity
4. Death
5. Overall plausibility

To navigate levels (only contributed to a little bit of the data for both games), I went back and made sure I was a character that could fly and regenerate health (e.g. Raven and Wonder Woman for Lego DC and Captain Marvel for Lego Marvel). Enemies were only a minor nuisance here. Most volcanism evidence was in the hub worlds, so had total freedom to explore.

Results: quality over quantity.

Lego Marvel Superheroes 2

Volcanism in this game is only limited to the Post-Ragnarok area/level. Still found some interesting stuff though.

A nice cone, with extensive lava flows and an ash plume drifting towards the Xander area. The ashfall was a bit unrealistic, as it only restricted to the Asgard area and did not drift. In reality, if when a volcano erupts and it produces ash, wherever the wind blows, the ash goes and falls. Relatively small eruptions that produce ash plumes can still travel far (such as the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland). Bigger eruptions that produce ash plumes however, can circle the whole world! An example is the 1812 eruption of Tambora in Indonesia.

Image from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8634944.stm

If we look at Asgard itself, there are some interesting stuff.

First is the interaction between the built environment (well…what is left of it anyway) and the lava flows. The top image shows an almost complete burial of a building and in between two lava channels and the bottom image is lava flowing under a stone bridge.

The building looks like it was destroyed by the volcano emerging right there or, buried by volcanic ash and/or pyroclastic material. Cannot say for certain what scenario it is but, all are plausible. The capital of Montserrat, Plymouth, is buried by pyroclastic material/ash/lahars (Figure a). The town of Armero is buried by lahars from the 1985 eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia (Figure b) and lava from Mt. Etna in Italy, has buried buildings in the past (Figure c).

Figure a. Plymouth, Montserrat (https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringgeology/geoscenicAPI/geoscenic.cfc?method=viewImages&searchParameters=Plymouth)

Figure b. Armero, Columbia (https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/armero-destroyed-lahars-nevado-del-ruiz-volcano-colombia)

Figure c. Mt Etna (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/Building_partially_buried_by_lava_at_Mount_Etna_in_Sicily_in_Italy.jpg/800px-Building_partially_buried_by_lava_at_Mount_Etna_in_Sicily_in_Italy.jpg)

The intact stone bridge with the lava flowing underneath it interests me. Like in figures a, b and c, buildings can withstand the heat and pressures of volcanic hazards to a certain extent. What is the melting point of bricks? No idea, but luckily someone wrote a paper on it! According to Kanolt (1912), various types of brick have the following melting points (I had no idea there are so many types of brick):

• Fire clay: 1555-1725°C (2831-3137°F)
• Bauxite brick: 1565-1785°C (2849-3245°F)
• Silica brick: 1700-1705°C (3092-3101°F)
• Chromite brick: 2050°C (3722°F)
• Magnesia brick: 2165°C (3929°F)

The melting points of “stone” really does depend on it being either sedimentary (e.g. sandstone), metamorphic (e.g. marble) or igneous (e.g. basalt). Whilst I cannot say for certain what “type” of stone is used in Asgard, I am going to say it can withstand the high temperatures of lava (700-1200°C/1300-2200°F). On a similar note, last image from Asgard is this tree that had survived:

If not in the direct path of lava or another volcanic hazard, trees can survive. Even still, if they are, some trunks and branches can survive but lose their vegetation, but some do not lose their leaves! For example, these trees from one of the 1902 pyroclastic density currents of La Soufrière St. Vincent (my masters and PhD study area) stayed standing, but lost their leaves:

From Dr. Tempest Anderson’s collection at the Yorkshire Museum, UK: https://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/collections/collections-highlights/temptest-anderson-explorer-and-surgeon/

Here are some other photos of the lava in/around Asgard and also what it looks like in the level attached to this area:

Also, this is how you die in both Lego games if you are a character that can regenerate health (characters that do not die instantly):

1. Aesthetics: 7
   • It is not bad, flow mechanics behave alright, got cooler bits forming on top of the lava, volcanic ash is visible but like Spyro, there is a lack of flow complexity.
2. Accessibility: 9
   • In the Asgard portion of the hub, it is easy to get to if you use a flying character. The background in the level attached is not accessible.
3. Viscosity: 7
   • Pretty good, no complaints but again, lacks complexity and seems too runny for my liking.
4. Death: 1
   • This is Lego. It really is not in the realms of realism other than that you can die. On a similar note…Lego is plastic. It should just melt. But…I suppose that would be pretty graphic for a children’s game.
5. Overall plausibility: 8
   • I am quite happy with it! Apart from the lack of flow complexity, the way Lego dies and the volcanic ash not impacting outside of Asgard that brought the mark down.

Lego DC Supervillains

Since this was done by the same company, there is not much difference apart from what volcanism is on offer to explore. All of it is restricted to the world Apokolips (pronounced apocalypse): home of Darkseid (kind of DC’s equivalent of Thanos), Granny Goodness (who is not good) and the Female Furies (who will hurt you).

This place is insane. It is essentially a city living on/in (?) a lava field. I just…I love it. I do not know where to begin. Okay, I will start with that this is not plausible in the slightest. What is feasible are all the lava falls, which I touched upon in my Spyro post. The texture/viscosity of them is like honey which is kind of similar to pahoehoe lava. I cannot say for certain what kind of material the buildings are made out of. It is metal, which was established in my Spyro write-up of being able to withstand the temperatures of lava. Cannot possibly imagine what it took to incorporate the lava into the infrastructure and if the eruption was happening before, during or after the construction of the city.

The background landscape in the first two images is bit confusing, but does reminds me of a fissure eruption landscape. Think 2018 Kilauea in Hawaii and 2014 Bárðabunga-Holuhraun in Iceland. Fissure eruptions produce extensive and complex flow paths, so if the sharp rock features were there before, it works out fine. Not entirely sure if an eruption could form them.

What is also interesting is the texture of the solidified areas in the last image. Looks like basalt lava textures but also like a moonscape? Also not sure about the glowing rock in the background. Unless it is ‘A’a or blocky lava (see photo below) that has been emplaced and is just taking a long while to cool.

A’a lava on Hawai’i. Image from: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/hawaii/slidepages/slide_03.html

I have saved the best (in my opinion) to last:

Look.at.that.ropey.lava. It is my favourite bit of lava flows. It is very common and associated with pahoehoe lava. The texture forms when the upper crust of the flow starts to cool and behave like elastic, with the flow underneath creating the folds before it solidifies. It is just so awesome.

Image taken by Burtner A. (https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/pahoehoe)

Out of the games I have revisited so far, only this game has made an attempt to diversify in the representation of lava flow texture complexity. Give more me diversity!

1. Aesthetics: 8
   • I am a sucker for pahoehoe.
2. Accessibility: 9
3. Viscosity: 9
   • One extra point for the pahoehoe. Bonus point for effort.
4. Death: 1
5. Overall plausibility: 9
   • Extra point for the pahoehoe! I love it okay?!

This has been fun, I can strike one more off the list. I promise the next game I do is Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

In the meantime, happy gaming!

Jazmin