Aerial bombing of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano was done in the past, widening the eruption crater to minimize high flying volcanic ash problems.
WUWT reader “magma control” writes in with this suggestion:
The USAF bombed the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Loa, in 1935 and 1942 to divert lava flows threatening Hilo, and again for testing in 1975-76 [1, 2].
As in Iceland magma flow and strong quakes around Bardarbunga volcano area continue and officials do not exclude a big eruption [3], we propose an immediate serious consideration of using bombing to widen the crater in case of an eruption, in order to prevent volcanic ash reaching high and causing too many problems in air-traffic (as from the same country in 2011) and climate.
There is literature support for the idea:
Modern aerial bombing has a substantial probability of success for diversion of lava from most expected types of eruptions on Mauna Loa’s Northeast Rift Zone, if Hilo is threatened and if Air Force assistance is requested… (Bulletin Volcanologique 1980, Volume 43, Issue 4, pp 727-741).”
Here is a photo from 1942, and the results in a study below:
REFERENCES
1. Diversion of lava flows by aerial bombing — lessons from Mauna Loa volcano, Hawaii J. P. Lockwood, F. A. Torgerson. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02600367 Bulletin Volcanologique 1980, Volume 43, Issue 4, pp 727-741
“Modern aerial bombing has a substantial probability of success for diversion of lava from most expected types of eruptions on Mauna Loa’s Northeast Rift Zone, if Hilo is threatened and if Air Force assistance is requested. The techniques discussed in this paper may be applicable to other areas of the world threatened by fluid lava flows in the future.”
2. Biplanes Bomb Hawaii Volcano 1935: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwX2Xn4OgA0
3. http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/2947
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Bombing would only intensify explosive eruptions, and lava flows are not a threat on iceland, perhaps a meltflood, but in this case that water is directing into unhabited areas.
Read klemetti’s blog.
Near real-time 3D earthquake coverage + webcam of Bárðarbunga: http://baering.github.io/
Thank you for not upgrading to this format – http://www.centrum.is/~edda/heimaey1.html
Yes, it is on topic, but I can ‘t read it!
Cant read it, but wonderful pics
It’s well red !!! (:>))
If you select across it with a mouse it becomes much easier to read.
I second FergalR’s comments on the current main text font.
Hey guys, whenever there is a potential problem in another country that might impact the traveling of American citizens, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BOMB IT!
🙂
But when you best tools all make a big boom, everything looks like a target….(/joke)
This story, by the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RUV), was updated on 28, August 2014, at 02.20 GMT.
>>>Possible eruption near Bardarbunga<<<
A row of newly formed cauldrons (depressions) was spotted in the Vatnajokull glacier near the Bardarbunga volcano during a reconnaissance flight today, leading to speculation that a small eruption had begun there. Scientists estimate that 30 – 40 million cubic metres of ice have been melted.
According to a statement from the Icelandic Civil Protection Agency (CPA) early Thursday morning, three cauldrons were seen, 4 – 6 km long, 1 km wide, with a depth of 10 – 15 metres, near the southeastern rim of the Bardarbunga caldera. They are not believed to be associated with the intrusion that has been propagating to the north in recent days.
Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland´s Institute of Earth Sciences, estimated in an exclusive interview with RUV that the subglacial activity had melted 30 – 40 million cubic metres of water beneath the cauldrons. In this location, the glacial ice is hundreds of metres thick.
As the cauldrons are at a location on the watershed line between the northwestern and the southern part of Vatnajokull, there are indications that the meltwater has flowed to the nearby reservoir at Grimsvotn (another active volcanic site in Vatnajokull), about 20 km away. "But there is a large degree of uncertainty in all this, and until we fly again tomorrow over the area, it is very difficult to say something substantive about this," he added. "Circumstances at the glacier today were not favourable and we can not exclude that more cauldrons have been formed,“ Gudmundsson said. "We will hopefully know more after the reconnaissance flight tomorrow morning."
Earthquake monitoring has not revealed any signs of volcanic tremor in the area where the cauldrons were found, and there are no indications that a large eruption is underway. Monitoring of nearby glacial rivers has not shown any increase in volume or conductivity (usually a sure sign of magma-water interaction).
Cauldrons like the ones seen today are usually formed by a subglacial eruption or geothermal activity in the bedrock under the glacier.
Strong seismic activity has been detected in the area around Bardarbunga caldera since Aug. 16, with magma flowing out of the caldera to a dike intrusion propagating to the north and east of Bardarbunga. That activity is still ongoing.
Volcanic eruptions are frequent in Iceland, though they seldom cause harm to humans. The last volcanic eruption in Iceland was in 2011, when Grimsvotn, another subglacial volcano, spew a plume of ash 12 km (7 mi) into the air, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights internationally. A more notable eruption occured in the spring of 2010, at Eyjafjallajokull volcano, causing a major disruption of European and transatlantic flights.
>>>Possible Eruption Flood: Where Will the Water go?
BY BENEDIKT JÓHANNESSON August 28, 2014 00:38 GMT<<<
Specialists at the Iceland Met are now saying that there is no doubt that the calderas/lows are a visible sign of water melting. Specialist Sigurlaug Hjaltadóttir told RÚV that this could be due to an eruption or very great geothermal activity. She said that the calderas are east-south-east of Bárðarbunga, indicating higher possibility of an eruption.
Sigurlaug said that an eruption could possibly have started in the last few days, hence causing the icecap to melt. It is estimated that the glacier is between 400 and 600 meters thick in that location.
The big mystery is where the water might flow. A huge flood in Jökulsá á Fjöllum glacial river has been feared, but there is no indication that the water level has increased there. Another possibility is that the water has flooded into Grímsvötn, a glacial lake, but then the icecap on top of the lake should have risen. Measurements are not available on that yet.
Should melted water have flown into Grímsvötn lake it would be collected there before a flood would start to the south west of Vatnajökull glacier. This happened in the river Gjálp in 1996 when a bridge was swept away, hence closing the Iceland Ring road.
Víðir Reynisson at the Civil Protection told RÚV that the calderas are located more to the south than expected. Hence, it is difficult to predict where a possible flood would come out, to the north or south of Vatnajökull.
Víðir said that the weather had made it difficult to make some observations during a flight this afternoon, but that the calderas/lows seem to have been formed, several kilometers long and quite wide. It is difficult to explain by anything else than considerable heat below the ice.
“We might not have the results for certain until tomorrow morning when we can fly over the glacier again.”
When asked whether an eruption had started Víðir replied:
“It is difficult to say, but if these changes are sudden it is difficult to say what else it could be than an eruption. It was difficult to see this evening, but the lows were not there on Saturday. What scientists are looking into is that a lot of water should be formed when the ice is melting. We need time to evaluate the data.”
Víðir continued by stating that the instruments of the Iceland Met show great earthquake activity.
http://icelandreview.com/news/2014/08/28/possible-eruption-flood-where-will-water-go
From the Icelandic Coast Guard.
Aerial view of the caldera. 27 August 2014 18:53 GMT
http://www.mbl.is/tncache/frimg/dimg_cache/t260x260/7/61/761217.jpg
Hawaiian volcanoes are shield volcanoes that undergo non-explosive eruptions. Icelandic volcanoes are cone volcanoes known for explosive eruptions. Once a cone volcano has built up gas pressure inside, bombing it might trigger an explosive eruption as it weakens the cap rock. Like shaking a champagne bottle then pulling the cork halfway.
It might work when cone volcano is quiet, no pressure buildup. With enough nuclear bombs it is possible to flatten a volcano. There’s no economic incentive to do it. Mining companies have literally flattened hills to extract minerals using conventional explosives and heavy equipment.
Thanks for darkening the main text.
Scientists told us in the morning radio news that a volcaninic activity must have caused the visible changes in the surface, including the 4 to 6 km rifts and depressions.
The problem however is that no harmonic tremor has been detected.
Location of the depressions and rifts that were visible yesterday:
http://www.ruv.is/files/imagecache/frmynd-stor-624×351/myndir/sigkatlar_klukkan_23_52_agust_27_0.jpg
Who is this “we”? This seems like a very over prescribed solution to a problem that will take care of itself if “we” just sit back and wait with our cameras ready. It reminds me of the story about the guy who was diagnosed with a case of Hong Kong dong and the ensuing great consensus urgency among US doctors to amputate it vs waiting the usual two weeks for it to fall off. Old joke with a lesson to relearn.
Left: Radar image from yesterday at 16:00 GMT
Right: For comparision; ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite image of the site Nov. 2000.
http://www.ruv.is/files/imagecache/frmynd-stor-624×351/myndir/ratsja.png
Source:
http://ruv.is/frett/hlaupvatnid-kaemi-adur-en-gos-saeist at 07:37 GMT = Local time
Should “we” bomb Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano? Depends on who you mean by “We”? And for that matter, the answer might also depend on the wishes of the Icelandic people. Can’t very well bomb a sovereign in the 21st century just because it would be fun to play with their volcano.
The other thing is that with volcanoes “there’s more where that came from”…. Iceland sits on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and also has a mantle hotspot beneath it. I also read that there is plate activity nearby (subduction?) and so there are plenty of processes in play to generate fresh magma.
This “prevention” idea was brought up briefly on one of the volcano blogs (volcanocafe?) and it was noted that the forces in play are orders of magnitude higher than any device(s) we could throw at it. Not to mention the radioactive waste, etc., that would result. Hot, ejected, airborne, radioactive magma/ash anyone?
With all the ice over the volcano and the magma building below there could be one BIG POP.
I hope it blows it’s top way into the stratosphere soon.
Since you asked, my answer to the question is, “No.”
It seems that documentaries, blogs and other works, aren’t enough yet to fill the education gaps on the devastating results of an eventual volcanic winter over a confused humankind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_XHCl3w928
There is no need to bomb the caldera. An earthquake of magnitude 5 in the caldera was felt in Akureyri town a few minutes ago. Akureyri is 100km north of Bárðarbunga. I guess that the energy released is much more than from some man made bombs.
You may be interested in this: Man Against Volcano – Eruption on Heimaey, Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland.
See page 13: Control of the Lava Flows.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/heimaey/heimaey.pdf
Also a short video:
1973 Iceland Volcanic Eruption
>>>Flood from Bárðarbunga May Be Imminent<<<
Iceland Review
BY BENEDIKT JÓHANNESSON August 28, 2014 07:52Updated: August 28, 2014 08:56 GMT / Local Time
As reported, geophysicist Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson said that a significant amount of ice has melted in Vatnajökull, yet earthquake monitors show no signs of a big eruption in Bárðarbunga.
“Around 30-40 million cubic meters [1,1-1,4 billion cubic feet] of water have flowed from under there but we don’t know whether this has been happening in the past days or just today [yesterday]. However, by what we can see on earthquake monitors there are no indications of a great volcanic eruption taking place,” Magnús stated.
“We don’t know what has happened with this water, whether it is flowing somewhere now or whether it has flowed down to Grímsvötn. We will have to find out once further observations have been made, he concluded.
After carrying out a surveillance flight on TF-SIF yesterday, scientists said that a row of four 10-15 m deep cauldrons (also known as lows or calderas) have formed in Vatnajökull glacier, cautiously indicating that an eruption may have started or may already have taken place.
Should the water flow to Grímsvötn, glacial lakes on Vatnajökull, that might indicate a possible flood to the south or southwest of the glacier as happened in Gjálp in 1996 when a bridge was swept away, thus closing the Icelandic Ring Road temporarily.
Up until now, most scientists and the Civil Protection Department have worried about a big flood in Jökulsá á Fjöllum, a glacial river to the north of Vatnajökull.
A new surveillance flight is planned at 9:00 am this morning.
The area directly north of Vatnajökull is still closed for safety reasons.
http://icelandreview.com/news/2014/08/28/flood-bardarbunga-may-be-imminent
The Canadian Avro Lancaster VR-A will soon be heading back from Lincolnshire to Hamilton, Ontario. To defray costs, I suggest a Barnes Wallis Grand Slam bomb (22,000 lb) be dropped from it prior to landing at Keflavik to “loosen up” the ice cap. Get the Icelanders to throw in 100,000 GBP.
This would combine a useful experiment with some nostalgia involving the mighty Lanc.
You know it makes sense..
Magnitude 5.0 earthquake at Bardarbunga…
http://icelandreview.com/news/2014/08/28/magnitude-50-earthquake-hits-bardarbunga
James, The Lancaster was in Reykjavik a few weeks ago. I look forward to see them drop the Dambuster 🙂
?oh=5689f6af1ec7f047e3f7adaede7b4405&oe=546C0481
By the way, the surface of the glacier has not changed since yesterday. Maybe there was a small eruption August 23 when the seismometers showed this:
“James, The Lancaster was in Reykjavik a few weeks ago. I look forward to see them drop the Dambuster 🙂 ”
Indeed, Agust, I tracked it to Keflavik on the flight from Goose Bay.
Many thanks for the excellent video.
The Aviation Color Code for the volcano Askja was changed from green to yellow this morning: See map:
http://www.vedur.is/photos/volcanoes/volcano_status.png
http://www.vedur.is/skjalftar-og-eldgos/eldgos/
neville August 27, 2014 at 7:20 pm
Considering the USAAF’s reputation for the accuracy of their bombing during WW11, it’s amazing they hit the right volcano.