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I’ve heard that a very big explosion ontop of the Yellowstone expanding magma bubble could burst it with devastating consequences. Is something like this reali

I’ve heard that a very big explosion ontop of the Yellowstone expanding magma bubble could burst it with devastating consequences. Is something like this realistic and considered in national security?

chx 2y ago
At least for the next 2500 presidential cycles or so the chances of the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupting is considered quite low. We have some understanding of the physics involved, there's not enough lava and magma in the chambers currently for such an eruption. Even if a previously unseen phenomenon started to rapidly fill those, rapidly on a geological scale is still measured in thousands of years. Also, similar things like "the Big One is due in the Northwest" are just sensational headlines. The Cascadia Subduction Zone indeed produces earthquakes every 3-500 years and the last one was in 1700 but that doesn't mean there's an equivalent of a hourglass. It just means there's a historical average of that. And it's the concern of FEMA to act after something like this happens, not a matter of national security. National security concern, I imagine, would involve defusing these via some military ways and defusing such events are far beyond the capability of humankind at this time.
andrewflnr 2y ago
As explosions go, especially volcanic explosions, this was pretty tiny. Also I don't know where you're getting this idea of an "expanding magma bubble" that could "burst". There's magma chamber that is not to my knowledge changing size, and it can't really erupt at all right now. There's certainly no air inside it, unless you want to count dissolved gas in the magma.
- sharpshadow 2y ago
  I mean an external explosion which triggers the burst of the magma bubble. For example L. Ron Hubbard speaks about it where Xenu does this. “Hydrogen bombs were then lowered into the volcanoes and detonated simultaneously, killing all but a few…”[1]. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu
  - andrewflnr 2y ago
    L. Ron Hubbard is one of the worst sources on volcanology I can imagine. Are you trolling?
HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
It would probably take a sizeable nuke to have that kind of impact. And if someone is lobbing nukes at us, we have more immediate concerns that a potential volcanic eruption.
- sharpshadow 2y ago
  But would it actually be possible to bring an volcano to errupt with a explosion? They don’t remove a lot of soil layers as far as I understand.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
    I doubt that it is even possible. I was pointing out that in that scenario, the last thing to be worried about is an eruption.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
    I doubt that it is even possible. I was pointing out that in that scenario, the last thing to be worried about is an eruption.

chx 2y ago

At least for the next 2500 presidential cycles or so the chances of the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupting is considered quite low. We have some understanding of the physics involved, there's not enough lava and magma in the chambers currently for such an eruption. Even if a previously unseen phenomenon started to rapidly fill those, rapidly on a geological scale is still measured in thousands of years. Also, similar things like "the Big One is due in the Northwest" are just sensational headlines. The Cascadia Subduction Zone indeed produces earthquakes every 3-500 years and the last one was in 1700 but that doesn't mean there's an equivalent of a hourglass. It just means there's a historical average of that. And it's the concern of FEMA to act after something like this happens, not a matter of national security. National security concern, I imagine, would involve defusing these via some military ways and defusing such events are far beyond the capability of humankind at this time.

andrewflnr 2y ago

As explosions go, especially volcanic explosions, this was pretty tiny. Also I don't know where you're getting this idea of an "expanding magma bubble" that could "burst". There's magma chamber that is not to my knowledge changing size, and it can't really erupt at all right now. There's certainly no air inside it, unless you want to count dissolved gas in the magma.

sharpshadow 2y ago
I mean an external explosion which triggers the burst of the magma bubble. For example L. Ron Hubbard speaks about it where Xenu does this. “Hydrogen bombs were then lowered into the volcanoes and detonated simultaneously, killing all but a few…”[1]. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu
- andrewflnr 2y ago
  L. Ron Hubbard is one of the worst sources on volcanology I can imagine. Are you trolling?

HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago

It would probably take a sizeable nuke to have that kind of impact. And if someone is lobbing nukes at us, we have more immediate concerns that a potential volcanic eruption.

sharpshadow 2y ago
But would it actually be possible to bring an volcano to errupt with a explosion? They don’t remove a lot of soil layers as far as I understand.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
  I doubt that it is even possible. I was pointing out that in that scenario, the last thing to be worried about is an eruption.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
  I doubt that it is even possible. I was pointing out that in that scenario, the last thing to be worried about is an eruption.