Grandma’s death by acid is a highlight of the 1997 camp classic “Dante’s Peak.” The disaster epic chronicles the race to save a small town from a deadly volcanic eruption.

In the movie, volcanic gases quickly turn a placid lake into an acidic death trap as a family escapes burning-hot lava by boat, aided by a volcanologist played by Pierce Brosnan. Grandma sacrifices herself and jumps into the lake to push their dissolving aluminum boat the last few feet to safety.

For a film that gets some eruption science terrifyingly right, the lake’s radical transformation has always been a sticking point. Volcanic gases belching from the lake bottom can’t acidify an entire lake in a matter of hours, debunkers have shown. However, extremely acidic fluids could dissolve Grandma’s legs and kill her from shock, as well as eat holes in the boat.

Now, it turns out there is also some truth behind the fictional volcanic chemistry.

Real-life acid trip
In 1996, volcanic blasts at Karymsky Lake in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula created a toxic chemical soup in the formerly pristine lake, according to a study published Oct. 1 in Geophysical Research Letters. The eruption decimated the lake’s ecosystem, killing off thousands of fish and trees.