The ones making the threat were the ones highlighting it as a “radioactive eruption.”
In reality I don’t think any amount of nukes would make the caldera blow. There are already loads of conduits to the surface (geysers, hot springs, pools) so trying to create another with explosives would be useless. A path to the surface is not what is lacking.
It won’t blow until something from below makes the magma chamber swell to an unstable state.
I so hope you are correct!! Great points.
We have a Russian visitor who was talking about this here recently.
Thank you.
It might contaminate the whole area is about it.
Several factors need to be in place to trigger the eruption.
Everyone always thinks a Yellowstone eruption will be explosive, but it might not be too. Even if a missile punctured the magma chamber and exploded, it could remain a very localized event. Not good, but localized as the volcano may not continue to erupt vigoursly.
It won’t blow until something from below makes the magma chamber swell to an unstable state.
Exactly. If you could simply make openings at the surface (I count that as a few kilometers down too) then we would never have an eruption because we could poke holes above the magma chamber.
Super-eruptions start deep below the earth and the energy is hundreds of times larger than the pool of magma sitting in the upper chamber. For a massive Yellowstone eruption the magma that sits in the chamber now is no more consequential to the eruption than the piece of cork at the top of a wine bottle. Get enough gas generation in the bottle and the cork will be expelled with a rush of liquid behind it.