Image: "Volcano" movie/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
About This Quiz
Ah, the '90s. We're still watching this glorious decade's campy disaster flicks for the action scenes and nostalgic value. But accuracy was never their forte. Just for kicks, let's look at the science of "Twister," "Volcano" and more.
How does "Twister" misrepresent the Fujita scale, a real-life tornado rating system?
It doesn't pertain to North American tornadoes.
Tornadoes don't get ratings until after they've ended.
Characters talk about F-5 tornadoes, which don't really exist.
Why doesn't Los Angeles get volcanic eruptions like the one that devastates the city in "Volcano"?
LA doesn't have the right tectonic conditions for volcano formation.
All the local volcanoes are dormant.
Californians passed a state-wide volcano ban in 1973.
In real life, when would an Earth-bound, Texas-sized asteroid (like the one in "Armageddon") become visible to the naked eye?
About 10 days before impact.
About two weeks before impact.
Well over a month before impact.
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Fill in the blank: James Cameron revised the sinking scene in "Titanic" when astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson told him ____________.
The starfield was inaccurate.
The moon was in the wrong phase overhead.
The actual ship went down at dusk, so twilight would've been visible.
Experts praised some aspects of "Dante's Peak," but many also criticized the famous acid lake scene in this 1997 volcano movie. Scientifically, what was wrong with it?
Pierce Brosnan's boat should've instantly dissolved.
Acidic lakes have nothing to do with volcanoes.
The lake's acidity escalated way too fast.
True or False: Tsunamis - like the ones seen in "Deep Impact" - slow down when they go from deep to shallow water.
TRUE
FALSE
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In "Godzilla" (1998), Manhattan's besieged by a giant lizard who reproduces asexually. Which of these reptiles can use the same trick?
the Komodo dragon
the green anaconda
both of the above
To split that giant asteroid in "Armageddon," the math suggests you'd need a bomb more than a billion times more powerful than which of these weapons?
the American bomb used in the 1945 Trinity nuclear test
the Soviet Union's famous "Big Ivan" bomb
"Little Boy," the atomic weapon dropped on Hiroshima in 1945
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