# How would you destroy an erupting underwater volcano? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956 "2010-07-16T19:35:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/21 "2010-07-17T03:00:33Z")
> [@gladtobeblazed](#): > > We could put solar sails on a large asteroid or comet, directing it to Earth and if we can put it into the correct re-entry path, it will land on the volcano, demolishing it. There is a movie script in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/22 "2010-07-17T03:52:57Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > This brings up the question of why humans keep thinking that they can control natural events at all. We are a pretty smart species but still little piss-ants in the overall scheme of things. My home state of Louisiana got hit twice in the last five years with horrible disasters. The first was Katrina which should be an easy one if we had as much power as we think we do but that was a mega-fail. Then, there was the Gulf Oil volcano which was an epic fail because it was engineered by people and still couldn’t be stopped. We will have to see if it is fixed but there is at least a generation’s worth of damage already done. > > Science fiction writers everywhere make me sick. It is one thing to dream about conveniences but we are just smart apes and we can’t control our own planet let alone blast out into the interstellar world. The federal government probably isn’t as competent and efficient as the one you work for (think about that for a minute). It is basically proven that they couldn’t handle a dirty nuke going off in Manhattan or a giant earthquake in California or even Missouri. Thank God those haven’t happened yet but something like it will. > > None of that compares to an undersea volcano though. That is hopeless. Science fiction writers are entertainers. They have no obligation to be even 1% accurate. Movie sci-fi “writers” don’t care about being even 0.000000001% accurate. They make a living off of peoples’ stupidity, which has always been the surest way of making money, for everybody, in every field, in every culture, in every time. What are we poor science fiction writers to blame? And the fact that someone can even ask this OP, which is no different from a dozen other OPs in which people ask what can be done to present some overwhelming natural disaster that an atom bomb wouldn’t affect any more than a flea would, is surely proof of how best to make money. ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/23 "2010-07-17T04:04:38Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > There is a movie script in there somewhere. It could be a SyFy movie: **Giant Asteroid vs Supervolcano**. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/24 "2010-07-17T05:44:16Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Wouldn’t that just make it bigger? That doesn’t actually matter. The problem is not lava coming out of the sea floor but rather the volcano getting so high it blocks the Gulf Stream. So as long as the volcano is kept well below that, it doesn’t really matter. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/25 "2010-07-17T06:34:11Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > severe disruption to Ireland [and] Britain Couldn’t we just tow them further South? ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/26 "2010-07-17T07:12:59Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Nuke it from somewhere. We should nuke it with two nukes at the same time, from opposite directions. They will deliver a shockwave with twice the energy of a single nuke, so they will surely knock the volcano out. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/27 "2010-07-17T07:59:59Z")
The gulf stream averages about 100 kilometres wide. Frankly, I do not think a volcano along its path is going to affect it all that much. Maybe we should be worrying about things that might actually be a problem. There are plenty of those to be getting on with. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/28 "2010-07-17T13:14:35Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > That doesn’t actually matter. The problem is not lava coming out of the sea floor but rather the volcano getting so high it blocks the Gulf Stream. So as long as the volcano is kept well below that, it doesn’t really matter. I still don’t see how explosives will reduce the height of the volcano. More explosives = bigger opening = more lava = taller volcano. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/29 "2010-07-17T16:36:42Z")
I don’t think the problem would be physical obstruction of the current, but that rather, all the hot water rising from the vicinity of the volcano would disrupt the flow patterns. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/30 "2010-07-17T20:58:45Z")
> [@thirdname](#): > > We should nuke it with two nukes at the same time, from opposite directions. They will deliver a shockwave with twice the energy of a single nuke, so they will surely knock the volcano out. Ah, the old one-one punch! ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/31 "2010-07-17T21:25:31Z")
Have BP put a cap on it. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/32 "2010-07-17T23:05:18Z")
It’s simple, put a nuke _under_ the volcano. It might erupt worse at first but would soon subside. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/33 "2010-07-17T23:51:02Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > There is a movie script in there somewhere. Just get Michael Bay, that way you don’t even need a script. > [@thirdname](#): > > We should nuke it with two nukes at the same time, from opposite directions. They will deliver a shockwave with twice the energy of a single nuke, so they will surely knock the volcano out. Do you mean to nuke the east side and the west side of the volcano at the same time? Kind of like pinching a giant zit… ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/34 "2010-07-18T00:52:32Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > This brings up the question of why humans keep thinking that they can control natural events at all. I guess I don’t have to worry about my car passing smog anymore, then. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/35 "2010-07-18T23:33:12Z")
Why would you want to destroy the erupting underwater volcano, when you could build such a cool base surrounded by all that liquid hot mah-gma ?! ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/36 "2010-07-19T00:59:23Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Why would you want to destroy the erupting underwater volcano, when you could build such a cool base surrounded by all that liquid hot mah-gma ?! Brilliant! We’ll clone some megaladons, put frickin’ laser beams on their frickin’ heads and blackmail the UN for one million dollars, bwa ha ha ha. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/37 "2010-07-19T01:06:37Z")
Imagine we suddenly found that a band of tornadoes was breaking out right in the middle of Oklahoma. If allowed to continue they will cause severe disruption to the state, particularly Oklahoma City, Norman, and Tulsa. So how do you prevent it? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/38 "2010-07-19T01:30:14Z")
Bottom line: Nothing you can do about it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/39 "2010-07-19T03:00:42Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > I guess I don’t have to worry about my car passing smog anymore, then. 😃 Even for a smartass remark, this doesn’t make any sense. Smog was a manmade problem, not a natural disaster. Not too surprising that human intervention could alleviate it. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956/40 "2010-07-19T05:13:33Z")
Chuck Norris will stop the volcano! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-destroy-an-erupting-underwater-volcano/546956.md?page=3)