Volcanoes,
the ultimate natural force of destruction.
They’re unforgiving,
uncompromising
and unstoppable.
About 1,500 volcanoes around the world
are considered to be active,
with more than 10% of them
in the United States.
Is there any way we could stop them
before the destruction begins?
Could we literally fight fire with fire?
What if we nuked an active volcano?
Volcanoes are as cool as they are terrifying.
They are an incredible force of nature,
capable of destroying our lives
on their path of destruction.
But could we give them
a taste of their own medicine?
How could we nuke such a fiery inferno?
Well, we’d need to bring out the big guns.
The nuclear bomb
dropped on Hiroshima, Japan during WWII
was the equivalent of over 130 million kg (300 million lbs)
of TNT.
That had plenty of impact.
Could we use something like it
to blow a volcano to smithereens?
First, we’d have to figure out the target.
While it’s difficult to predict
when a volcano will erupt,
there are some warning signs.
Watch for things like tiny earthquakes,
releases of steam and other gases
from the volcano’s mouth
and bulging from the sides.
Sounds like my last date.
That being said,
whether the volcano will erupt
is still a massive educated guess.
So, let’s say that our scientists
locked on to an active volcano
that's ready to blow.
It would be a miracle if they could coordinate
with the military fast enough to try and stop it.
Ideally, we’d be able to predict it
a few days before the volcano
was about to explode.
This would provide more than enough time
for people to pack up their belongings
and evacuate without
causing the kinds of highway traffic jams
we see during hurricanes, tsunamis,
and other disasters.
With everyone out of harm’s way,
geologists,
volcanologists
and weapons experts
would determine any weak spots
on a volcano’s sides
that could be hit effectively.
Next, a highly-trained crew of pilots
would fly over the volcano,
drop their payload
and get the heck out of Dodge.
If things worked perfectly,
as in, if they used the exact
right amount of explosives,
and hit the perfect spot in exactly the right way,
the top of the volcano
would crumble into itself,
keeping the magma mostly underground.
There might still be some seepage
around the base of the volcano,
but it wouldn’t be anything like how
the eruption would’ve played out naturally.
But, if we’re being honest,
it would be like trying
to put out fire with gasoline.
Geologists warn that trying to bomb a volcano
might actually make things worse.
A lot worse.
The explosion of the bomb
mixed with the build-up of pressure
inside a volcano
could amplify the eruption.
The force would release even more
ash and lava,
spreading it even further than it would’ve
gone with the volcano's own power.
And that’s if we managed to hit the target.
If the nuke missed its target,
there’s still a nuclear bomb being dropped
in an area where people live,
or at least near enough that they would
feel the effects of the radiation.
If you had to pick one,
which would you choose?
Death by lava
or nuclear destruction?
We can’t bomb our way out of this problem,
the same way we can't stop magma
from building up under volcanoes.
Here at WHAT IF,
we’ve tried throwing trash
and pouring liquid nitrogen into volcanoes.
Long story short,
it doesn’t work.
Don’t mess with volcanoes!
As cool as it sounds on paper,
nuking a volcano just won’t work.
While man-made firepower can be impressive,
nature isn’t quaking in its boots
at what we can do.
But since our trigger fingers are itchy,
what if we tried combating
another natural disaster with a nuke?
What if we nuked a hurricane?