Why can’t we ‘nuke’ a volcano?

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So I was watching a video the other day about a massive volcano that erupted in the 1800s. It released so much sulphur into atmosphere that the planet cooled by 2 degrees. Which led me to the absurd thought that maybe we could induce a volcano into erupting to cool the planet and negate some of the climate change we’re seeing?

EDIT: forget the word NUKE and just think about if we could trigger a volcano successfully to our benefit? I understand that we wouldn’t want nuclear fallout.

In: Earth Science

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

A volcano is basically a great deal of energy which has built up beneath the surface with no path to escape. It erupts when eventually the pressure forces an opening and everything is released relatively slowly to the surface. It depends on the type of volcano for how slowly or quickly it erupts.
If you detonated a nuclear weapon you’d likely cause enough damage to create openings for the volcano to release its energy all at once. So along with the damage to miles around from the nuclear bomb, you’d be adding to it with the power of the volcano being unleashed. This would only increase the amount of gasses and debris being sent into the atmosphere, which would also be more radioactive from the nuclear bomb, to spread all around the world. So, ya it’d be a really bad idea.

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