What's the significance of sulfur in water before a volcanic erruption?

Question

In the movie Dantes Peak, which is supposed to be based off real volcanology, when the water supplies were saturated with sulfur and turned orange, it caused the volcanologists to start to panic. What is the significance of this in regards to how close the erruption was?

I realize that Hollywood often takes some license in their movies, however, if you watch the extra features, they said they wanted their volcanology to be as accurate as possible. It was so important to them that they had hired three volcanologists to help them in keeping accurate.

Answer 1

we have watched the Dantes Peak back in the First quarter in our Geology Classes in CMSHS. uhhmm.. the USGS went to panic that the eruption was near because, the chemicals that volcanoes spurt before eruption is also composed of sulfur, that when combined with water vapor produces sulfur dioxide which is a very poisnous and smelly gas.

in the other cases, like in Mt. Pinatubo [which i can remember was also mentioned in the film..hehe..] the water sources surrrounding the volcano also became acidic and the trees begin to dry up..

Answer 2

You must remember that we are talking about Hollywood here, and that they are not known to be scientifically correct very often. The fact is that sulfur is a common hydrothermal product of volcanoes, whether they are active or passive. I have never heard of anyone starting to panic just because of sulfur saturation in the water supplies. Geoscientists do get concerned when they see the creation of lava domes or an increase in seismic activity, but they don't panic, at least not that I have heard.

Answer 3

i googled "sulfur+volcanoes" and got this:

'Sulfur dioxide is one of the three most common gases that are part of magmas (along with water vapor and carbon dioxide). The exsolution of these gases from the magma to form bubbles and then the expansion of these bubbles is the force that drives volcanic eruptions, so gases are very very important in understanding volcanic activity.'

so i guess that the level of sulfur being seeped into the water, tells them how close the volcano is to erupting like if you fill a container to the max, as more starts to leak out, the container is getting closer to bursting.