Lava gulps down GoPro camera,

recorded the entire, fiery affair

Now Trending

"Do not drop your GoPro in the searing lava”. A photo of Storm’s GoPro camera after the flowing lava melted
its lens. PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK, LIVE SCIENCE

A footage of flowing lava melting the lens of a GoPro camera has surfaced online and is now one of the
hottest videos.

The fiery affair happened on Aug. 10, 2016, when Kilauea EcoGuides tours owner and lead guide
Erik Storm took a group of tourists from San Francisco to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, according to
National Geographic. The video resurfaced this month after Erez Marom, an Israeli photographer,
accidently melted a drone camera when he flew it too close to lava flows in Hawaii, renewing interest in
flaming-hot lava footage.

Storm captured the recording when he showed the tour group a fast-moving lava flow in the park
that day. Storm put his GoPro Hero4 Black camera into a crevice to capture a recording of the molten rock,
but he made what he now calls "a $400 mistake" — he didn't pull out the camera in time, National
Geographic reported. At least Storm has a good excuse for losing his GoPro to a molten blob. He was busy
telling the tourists a story about Pele, the Polynesian fire goddess, he told National Geographic. After the
scorching incident, he set to work retrieving the camera.

"I had a geologist rock hammer with me, and that is how I was able to get it out of the now cooling rock,"
Storm wrote on Storyful, a video site. "When I got home, I hammered all the hardened rock off of the
camera and was amazed to see the blue Wi-Fi light still blinking!"

Amazingly, the camera could still turn on, although the lens had melted, rendering it unusable. "The SD
[secure digital] card popped right out and the footage was intact," he told Storyful. "At the end of the video,
you can see me with the rock hammer."

It's no wonder the lava melted Storm's camera. Crawling, dark-red lava on Hawaii can reach
temperatures of 895 degrees Fahrenheit (479 degrees Celsius), according to the U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS), Live Science previously reported.
 Despite the great footage, Storm doesn't recommend that other people mess with lava: Many
native Hawaiians consider lava to be sacred.

"No one should ever poke the lava with anything, cook with the lava or throw anything into or in front of the
flowing lava to 'see what happens,'" Storm told Storyful. "I respect the place where I work to the fullest and
work hard to make sure people understand that this is a very sacred place that commands respect."

Source: https://www.livescience.com/61085-lava-engulfs-gopro-camera.html
 Lava gulps down GoPro camera, recorded the entire, fiery affair
Now Trending – Reflection

I am very surprised when I found this article online. Considering how lava can be so hot, how can a
camera survived it? According to the respondents on the video, this article proves how strong a GoPro
camera is. A GoPro camera is just like any other cameras out there, it is waterproof, can capture in wide-
angles and from a very far place. But the only thing that made the GoPro camera famous is because it
survived the searing lava flow from Mt Kilauea. From this topic, I learned that dark red lava can reach the
temperature of 895 degrees Fahrenheit while bright red lava can reach 1165 degrees Fahrenheit, and
lastly, orange lava indicates the molten rock is a steaming 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. The video shows how
fast lava can descend from a volcano. We must always be aware of our surroundings. If I am to describe
what color the lava in the video was, I would say it is an orange-colored lava. As I said previously, orange
lava tend to reach 1600 degrees Farenheit. This explains why the GoPro camera was almost eaten by the
lava. The incident happened because of carelessness of Erik Storm. Although the video may somewhat be
pleasing to watch, Storm advised everyone to not mess with lava. The video is result of carelessness and
not because he intended to record it. Lava is not something we should be close to, but perhaps it is
something we should take care of caution. Also, this incident proves how a geologist’s instrument can
saved the world. The video was uploaded because of the geologist hammer Storm is carrying. Without this
geologist hammer, the video wouldn’t surface online.

Significant Questions with Answers:

1. If you are the geologist, will you post the recorded video online? Explain. ANSWER: Yes, I am
going to post it online because it will help the people to take more caution when travelling near or
around the volcano.
2. What does Erik Storm means when he said “Do not mess with lava”? ANSWER: Erik Storm means
that lava isn’t friendly at all. We shouldn’t feel close to it. He made a mistake and melted the lens of
his camera and it was a mistake, he did not intended to. People think they will get the same result if
they imitate Storm’s action but they wouldn’t because it is not everyday that we are saved from
danger.
3. Do you agree to continue having visitors on or near the volcano? ANSWER: Personally, I don’t
think it is a good idea to have tourists be tour around the volcano because we don’t know what will
happen. Volcano is one of the places we should take caution when visiting. We are not a hundred
percent sure that it is everyday that we are save from its eruption.