Ah Ha! Science thrills again! Today the fourth graders flung themselves at me with full-force for wowing them will Mentos and Diet Coke. After 2 spectacular eruptions- two kids erupted their own homemade volcanoes using standard volcano fare- vinegar and baking soda... I thought it would be a shame if they got sprayed with Diet Coke. Diet Coke carbonation is a great analogy for carbon dioxide release by real volcanoes...
All the Mentos and Coke got me thinking about my favorite lake... LAKE VOSTOK. A lake as large as Lake Michigan covered by two miles of ice!!!! What's in that pesky Lake--- much pressurized gas from dissolved rocks---That's a lot of carbon dioxide.... think about dropping many truckloads of Mentos into the lake.... and Wazammm!!! We won't have to resolve how to keep from contaminating the Lake anymore--- it will spray the entire continent...
