Beer-bottle physics could help explain deadly eruptions

The science behind overflowing beer bottles could help explain lethal eruptions of gases, according to a new study.
A better understanding of this effect could also help researchers to model what could happen if carbon dioxide is accidentally released from containment systems that are designed to keep the global-warming gas from escaping into the atmosphere, researchers said.
Researchers led by Javier Rodriguez-Rodriguez, a fluid mechanician at Carlos III University of Madrid in Spain, tapped the tops of beer bottles and used high-speed cameras to analyse what occurred inside.
The scientists also fired laser pulses into the beer - any bubbles that resulted from the beer tapping began forming where the laser pulses were focused, making it easier for the researchers to record what happened afterward.

They suggest these findings could help model the behaviour of explosive volcanic eruptions, 'LiveScience' reported.
The study could also help explain rare natural disasters called limnic eruptions, where dissolved carbon dioxide suddenly erupts from deep-lake water, suffocating wildlife, livestock and people.
In 1986, a limnic eruption at Lake Nyos in Cameroon is believed to have released as much as about 31 billion cubic feet of toxic gas, killing about 1,700 people and 3,000 cattle, researchers said.