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
Wow. This is a circumstance where it is really important to know that the real danger is cooling, not warming. If there are easy steps we can take to reduce the atmospheric residence time of volcanic aerosols by reducing the amount reaching the upper atmosphere we absolutely should be taking it.
BEST said! Disastrous volcanism is avertable now! Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks Gifford H. Miller et al, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 39, L02708, 2012 http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2011GL050168.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Quaternary_volcanic_eruptions#Holocene_eruptions
Do you know who Miller is?
The “study” is complete, total & utter garbage, the only goal of which is to promote CACA by “getting rid of the Medieval Warm Period”, same as his partner in chicanery Mann’s bogus Hockey Stick graph.
Ahem.
The Army Air Corps unit that bombed the Hawaiian volcano was the 23rd Bombardment Squadron, my old unit from my B-52 days.
We were quite proud of the unit’s role in saving the town of Hilo, as the squadron patch shows.
Back in 1935 they had Keystone bombers, as Boeing hadn’t built any B-52’s yet.
First a little history. In 1935, the aviation branch of the US Army was called the United States Army Air Corps. In 1942, US Army aviation was called the United States Army Air Forces. The United States Air Forces did not become a separate department until 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947, when the USAF came into being on 9/18/1947. So the bombing of the lava eruptions in 1935 on Mauna Loa was done by the USAAC and the 1942 eruption was bombed by the USAAF.
From my reading of the attempts to divert various lava flows on Mauna Loa, it never really worked (and won’t) unless the flow was (or can be) diverted at the eruption site elevation which, given local topography, may be hopeless. Trying to disrupt a lava tube only means the lava will break out of the tube at a higher elevation and head downhill again and, more than likely, go right back into the area that’s trying to be projected. Any attempt to build dikes is also pretty useless unless it can be done, again, at the eruption site elevation. A dike at a lower elevation will be subject to backfilling from lava at a higher elevation that finds a path behind the dike. A lot of thought and research has gone on about active measures to protect public property and life and it’s pretty well understood that about the only thing that can be done is get people out of the way and let the property go.
I know and follow this. I have a house on the Big Island’s Kilauea volcano and check the USGS HVO Kilauea Status Page most every day. Pu’u O’o, the site of Kilauea’s present Northeast Rift Zone eruption is uphill form my house. Either this eruption or some future eruption will some year (may it be a long, long time from now) cover my house site again.
There’s always hope! Explosive volcanic eruptions triggered by [divertable] cosmic rays: Volcano as a bubble chamber
Toshikazu Ebisuzaki, Hiroko Miyahara, Ryuho Kataoka, Tatsuhiko Sato, Yasuhiro Ishimine
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X10001966
http://scai-shield-craters-avert-iceages.webs.com/
There’s hope to divert stimulus factor! Explosive volcanic eruptions – Ebisuzaki, et al
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X10001966
Sorry, Kilauea’s EAST Rift Zone.
Jökulhlaup.
Just wanted to throw that word in. Jökulhlaup is the Icelandic term for a glacial outburst flood caused by geothermal heating or by a subglacial volcanic eruption. It’s pronounced just the way it looks; kind of like jackalope but without the jack rabbit and antlers.
A quotation from Charlton Ogburn comes to mind: “We trained hard … but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”
Lava diversion, like reorganization, is “a wonderful method for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”
Lava diversion is by nature only temporary, becoming obsolete at the next eruption. It is emotionally gratifying to those who are intimidated by the relative impotence of humans against the physical world. And it is counter-productive, creating lava-walled channels that will act to aim future lava flows in the same area directly at the site we seek to protect.
Should we bomb Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano?
NO.
Leave Iceland alone !
Its one of the most geologically active places on Earth and a great place to visit for that reason.
Let nature take its course – it will anyway.
Mike McMillan
August 28, 2014 at 6:51 am
Not only no B-52s but not even a four-engine heavy B-17, whose first flight was on 28 July 1935.
Subsequent produced Boeing bomber first flights:
B-29: 21 September 1942 (super-heavy four engine bomber)
B-50: 25 June 1947 (modified B-29)
B-47: 17 December 1947 (jet medium bomber)
B-52: 15 April 1952 (jet heavy bomber, still in service)
B-1: 23 December 1974 (originally Rockwell, acquired by Boeing, still in service)
He didn’t say they used B-52s, he said it was the same unit from his B-52 days.
Likewise, I was in the Eighth Air Force, the same unit the bombed Nazi Germany with B-17s, only I served 4 decades later.
I know that. My point was that the AAC was so relatively primitive in 1935 that it didn’t even have prototype B-17s yet. Its main bombers were still Keystone twin engine light biplanes, except for a few newer types like twin engine, medium Martin B-10s & Douglas B-18s (militarized DC-2).
The idea of bombing a volcano is as stupid as anything I’ve heard lately. I’d rather bomb the people who thought this one up,
USAF? Wow, their history goes back farther than I imagined. I think it was probably the Army Air Corps.
Indeed. They also attempted to channel the lava away from Hilo via bombing. The success or failure was impossible to measure, but that was known going in. What was there to lose?
This, though, is a huge rift volcano, many times the size and length of the Mauna Loa rift. It may be impossible for any point explosions to have a notable effect. The 1942 eruption was crater specific and hence influence was potentially poassible. .
Ultimate in, when you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
She has raised mountain ranges, then washed the same into Her sea.
Nukes ?, She brushes them off like a gnat.
Since Ukraine has no worthy targets, I agree, LETS BOMB ICELAND!!!
Chernobyl ?
The Askja caldera is at the top right (blue lake).
It’s still a long way from meeting any other magma though, isn’t it?
Oh, and thanks for posting these.
I’ve been following but not had much to say. My ignorance is great.
Your comments are being appreciated, even so..
There’s some good background and food for thought here:
http://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/bardarbunga-nature-of-the-beast/
(I put some other links below in this thread…lots of info out there in Icelandic, but
Google and the other translatebots just trash it…)…
“Should we bomb Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano?”
Who is we? I have no bombs and no way to deliver them. I suppose I could throw a rock at it. 😉
What could possibly go wrong?
http://baering.github.io/ fissure eruption showing up now.
Yep, she’s blowing now. I’ve been watching this video for the last few days and I caught this right away. Haven’t seen anything on the news sites yet though.
Here’s some sites (I’ve split this up because of the links)
Iceland Geology – Jón Frímann
http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/?p=4856
Volcano Cafe
http://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/
and some more sites (hope this doesn’t show up out of order…)
Eruptions-Wired Erik Klemetti
http://www.wired.com/category/eruptions/
More info from a volcanologist in Iceland
Dave McGarvie
http://davemcgarvie.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/bardarbunga-everything-you-need-to-know-well-almost-21-august-2014/
and some background material on “the Bard”
http://volcanocafe.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/bardarbunga-nature-of-the-beast/
This explains some theories that we’ll see (possibly) in action soon….
Lots of resources for volcano and geology fans in these sites (e.g. the Dragon’s Hoard on volcanocafe)
Bloody stupid idea. Must be a Yank who put it forwards.
The caldera is under a thick layer of glacial ice, that needs penetrating first, then the solidified lava cap. How thick’s that?
It’s not like bombing a ridge, to divert a lava flow away from a residential area.
MOST sites world-wide CENSOR ANY providence talk, except this one!!! Large eruption of Rabaul volcano, Papua New Guinea. 18km ash could and air flights rerouted: AVERTABLE!
The proposal here says: widen the crater in case of an eruption”, that means bombing will NOT cause any eruption, tactical weapons will NOT worsen any condition, instead widening an exit hole decreases speed flow, thus we will NOT face the results of another air-traffic chaos, taking also into account that Bardarbunga gave in 1477 a very strong SIX VEI eruption, adding to the longitude of the Little Ice-age!…
“Should we bomb Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano?”
Yes ……but only after we bomb the Pentagon the Whitehouse the IPCC, WalMart, KFC & all the worlds major cities first.!!!
It’s an absolutely stupid idea; leave it alone to do its thing, watch & learn & enjoy the show.
Nature controls us; we can’t control nature; so adapt or die but do no harm.
Or if you’re religious, its god moving in a mysterious way!! …..SO leave it alone.
are you going to sacrifice yourself first?