WHat would happen if a terrorist nuked Yellowstone?

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
I have seen something like this done in a lake in Africa that had posion gas build up under the lake and release all at once every once in a while killing many people in the surrounding area. They tapped the gas under the lake so it is released slowly over time so this will never happen again. It seems to work just fine.

It's Lake Nyos.

volcano.und.nodak.edu...
vulcan.wr.usgs.gov...

Today, large polyethylene pipes have been placed into Lakes Nyos and Monoun with the sole purpose of siphoning water continuously from the lower layers to the surface. This will allow the CO2 dissolved in the bottom waters to slowly bubble out as the water rises to the surface, thus preventing a similar tragedy in the future.
www.geology.sdsu.edu...

www.mala.bc.ca...
www.pbs.org...
www.biology.lsa.umich.edu...

Originally posted by Max Rushmore
I don't think a nuke would set off the super volcano at all. It might cause a vent to let off some of the building pressure. I don't think the matter is worth loosing sleep over though.

[edit on 16-10-2004 by Max Rushmore]

I've heard this somewhere before. Hmmmm.....Are you sure you don't work for the USGS???

E_T thats the lake I forgot the name of it good find

Do you think something like that basic concept might work with a volcano?

In order for pressure to come out with a great force it must be pushed out of a small opening. I think the way to diffuse this would be multiple holea with nukes inserted to blast a large hole yet keep most of the shock underground so not to affectthe neighboring area.

It's like a coke when you shake it. If you open the cap and put your thumb on it it will spew in the air for several feet. If you just open the cap it just runs on the floor.

Large underground bombs may be the way to fix to "DIFFUSE" all the volcanoes. It would take alot of calculations and alot of under ground tests to find the proper depth for each specific explosive. Different soils would have to be accounted for but I believe this is the way to "open the cap" and let the lava flow without causing it to spew everywhere.

I wish I had authority or were in charge I would begin the necessary tests immediatly.

It would not take much to set this off. Drilling a hole to it I think would be idiotic. I just watched a show on this the other day. The demonstrated a super volcanoe with pine resin and acetone. As soon as they let air in it mad a vacumn up the tube neck and the whole mess shot out the top of the tube like a rocket. It was amazing. Let me see if I can find a video. No video but I got this

be responsible for the violence of the eruptions. Into a glass flask - the magma chamber - he poured a mixture of pine resin and acetone. the pine resin mimicked the magma, the acetone modelled trapped volcanic gases like carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide.

STEVE SPARKS: Pine resin is a very sticky, stiff material so it has some properties which are rather like magma and we thought that if we could get a, a gas which dissolved in pine resin, like acetone, then we could get a, a laboratory system which would represent the, the natural case.

NARRATOR: Sparks then created a vacuum above the flask to mimic the depressurisation that occurs in the magma chamber when a supervolcano begins its eruption and the dissolved volcanic gas can expand. When the vacuum reached the liquid it caused a dramatic change. The dissolved acetone suddenly became a gas. This made the resin expand causing violent frothing and blasting the contents out of the chamber.

STEVE SPARKS: These experiments give us tremendous insight into the tremendous power of gases coming out of solution and enabled to drive these very dramatic explosive flows.

NARRATOR: Unlike supervolcanoes, normal volcanoes don't have this vast reservoir of magma and trapped volcanic gases and don't have the potential for such powerful eruptions. But experiments in the laboratory cannot answer the biggest question of all surrounding Yellowstone: when will it next erupt? Scientists face a problem. They have never seen a supervolcano erupt. Until a VEI8 eruption is observed and analysed no-one knows what the telltale precursors would be to a Yellowstone eruption.
www.bbc.co.uk...

WHat would happen if a terrorist nuked Yellowstone?

Nothing significant because terrorists do not have as much capability as many people think, but if the government wanted to, I am sure they could cause a 3.0 to 4.0 earthquake.

(edited for quote syntax correction)

[edit on 31-10-2004 by DetectivePerez]

ok I just watched the show someone mentioned above. The problem with the caldera at Yellowstone is very complicated. The pressure comes from liquid gases turning into a gas. (Like the bubbles in your coke. It's dissolved co2) The slightest leak to the air and it will all turn to gas and explode.

The only way I see to diffuse this would be to build tremendous heat resistant vent pipes. Cap them off and begin a controlled release. I'm sure this energy can be harnessed in some way as well.
The dissolved gases need to vent or most of North America will be destroyed.


What choice do we have? She's gonna blow its just a matter of time.

There was a program on tv not too long ago that talked about the makeup of the caldera. From what I remember it is estimated that you need about 50% fluid magma in the chamber. Right now its at about 10%. So the dynamics are not in place for an explosion.

Thats not true. Even if it were we should still get some sort of vent system in there and slowly open the lid to the shaken coke bottle....

I am still worried that this is open to the public. I fear that N korea or some country we have P Off could give a bomb to Bin LADEN and set it on the weakest point and blow us to ****. I would sleep better if they closed it off and and made it like AREA 51. Cameras everywhere and armed guards all around. It still needs to be open fo Inspection but not buy just anyone.