# Shutting down the Eyjafjallajokull volcano's eruption? (With SCIENCE!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944 "2010-04-22T00:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/21 "2010-04-22T13:47:00Z")
**Joe Frickin Friday** nailed it. The cure for ash in the sky is to put the volcano beneath the sea. And as somebody else said, Iceland is going to keep making more of these things. Damn recidivists. So chop it off a few hundred feet below sea level. And come back to trim it every few ten thousand years. Sure the effort is massive. But so is building those fake islands in Bahrain or wherever. And as the OP said, capturing an asteroid & driving it into the volcano is in-bounds for this silly thread. This’d be easy compared to that. The only real concern I have is that by taking off the top couple thousand feet of Iceland, we might open up another couple vents. Sorta like shaving your face & knocking the top off a couple of baby zits. Goop everywhere. If you thought one was bad … ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/22 "2010-04-22T13:48:08Z")
> [@Joe Frickin Friday](#): > > OP said solutions must be “technically possible.” It may be large-scale, but there’s nothing magical about moving rocks underwater. I’m not sure I agree - the question of scale does eventually intrude on the question of whether something is technically possible - we can cut an orange in half, but we can’t cut the moon in half - because the action isn’t indefinitely scalable. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/23 "2010-04-22T13:58:04Z")
> [@](#): > > [Eyjafjallajökull](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull): > lava at a temperature of about 1,000 °C (1,800 °F) up to 150 metres into the air. The lava is alkali olivine basalt. If you were to take the world’s supply of tungsten, powder it, and sprinkle it in the volcano’s vent hole, you might get a mix that is solid at 1,000 °C, or too viscous for the magma underneath to force out. A rock chemist could likely come up with a cheaper and more effective addition than tungsten. Of course, once the hole is blocked, pressure will build on the next volcano over in the chain. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/24 "2010-04-22T14:01:39Z")
Couldn’t you just plug the hole with a big enough rock? Sure that would build up pressure leading to a probable pyroclastic explosion in the near future but it would achieve the OPs original challenge to shut it down, albeit temporarily. You could fly in the massive rock by tethering it to numerous helicopters. Though I suppose a good proportion of them would have to fly through the ash cloud however… ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/25 "2010-04-22T14:08:03Z")
I think the OP has the answer in the very first post: find a large enough asteroid (but not _too_ large) to be guided down and smash into Iceland, obliterating it like a latter-day [Chicxulub crater](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater). No Iceland = no pesky Icelandic volcanoes. Everybody wins! ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/26 "2010-04-22T14:55:34Z")
Instead of the volcano you might have one giant spewing calderra. That would close down more than a few airports. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/27 "2010-04-22T15:40:25Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Couldn’t you just plug the hole with a big enough rock? Sure that would build up pressure leading to a probable pyroclastic explosion in the near future but it would achieve the OPs original challenge to shut it down, albeit temporarily. You could fly in the massive rock by tethering it to numerous helicopters. > > Though I suppose a good proportion of them would have to fly through the ash cloud however… I expect the volcano has greater lifting capacity than the helicopters you could use to get the rock there (assuming you can _find or cut_ a single chunk of rock big and heavy enough. Or in other words, it fails either by being too small to stop the volcano, or too big to lift by any number of helicopters you can tie to it (you can’t have them in multiple layers, or they crash into each others’ cables, and downwash each other out of the sky) ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/28 "2010-04-22T15:47:13Z")
Why destroy it, when you can harness it! (insert rubbing hands and mad laughter) We build a giant smoke stack over the thing, and using the uprising hot air and ash to turn a turbine. More electrical power then we know what to do with!! The extra long chimney needed will cause the remaining ash to be spewed higher into the atmosphere, reducing the density of ash over Europe, but creating a high thin cloud of it over the entire world, which will reflect some of the incoming solar energy, reducing global warming. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/29 "2010-04-22T16:09:23Z")
You could stop the ash with a giant geodesic dome HEPA filter. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/30 "2010-04-22T16:24:49Z")
> [@Anaglyph](#): > > iceland sits smack on the[Mid-Atlantic Ridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_Ridge), where the earth’s crust tears open as the Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate drifts apart. New crust is formed along the entire central valley of the ridge, as magma wells up to fill the gap. However, most of this happens too deep under water to cause much problems. In Iceland, where the rift reaches above sea level, we see the evidence of this continuous volcanic activity. To stop volcanic activity in iceland, you would have to stop the tectonic plates from drifting apart. I guess the only way to keep the crust from periodically tearing open would be to keep a deep cut through the crust hot enough that it could widen continuously. Some sort of clamp I imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/31 "2010-04-22T16:50:50Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I’m pretty sure our best, most magnificent efforts to do anything would be a bit like trying to stop a tornado by spitting at it. Tried it and failed, eh? Put a swagger into it and you can stop a tornado that way. Spitting on Superman’s cape, now that is bound to fail. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/32 "2010-04-22T17:44:46Z")
Couldn’t we blow it up with a big enough bomb? I mean, then you might get a giant caldera or move the pressure on down to the next volcano in line, but surely we could blow it up enough to either relieve the pressure or cap it? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/33 "2010-04-22T18:22:11Z")
I’m not sure the asteroid solution goes far enough. It seems to me that to truly stop Iceland from spawning volcanoes, we need to make it so that Iceland no longer sits astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Make Iceland into a big crater, and it’s just going to reform itself through continued eruptions. Fortunately, I have a plan. Unfortunately, it runs afoul of the OP’s third condition. We’ll need a bigger asteroid. Something moon-sized, or thereabouts. Perhaps the moon itself. If we get a decent sized asteroid and steer it into the right highly eccentric orbit around the moon, I believe it will over time pull the moon’s orbit into a more extreme ellipse about the earth. This is basically the space probe gravity slingshot around Jupiter thing in reverse, over and over again. Eventually the moon’s orbit intersects the earth, and the impact turns the entire crust into magma. Hey presto, no more Mid-Atlantic Ridge! ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/34 "2010-04-22T18:29:50Z")
The reason there are volcanos is because of the heat of the earth. Stop that and you’ll stop the volcano. Perhaps something that functions as a gigantic, continent sized heat sink could be implanted directly into the mantle. Using up all of the metal on the entire planet maybe. Shove a gigantic metal rod into the earth and let that heat dissipate into space. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/35 "2010-04-22T18:31:28Z")
Do tidal forces keep the Earth’s interior hot? Perhaps by moving the moon, you could remove this force. You could remove the moon by chucking a pebble if you could calculate it’s gravitational effect on bigger bodies like an astroid (which would in turn effect still bigger bodies like a comet moving bigger bodies like a tiny moon and so on) until you influenced something massive enough to sail towards the moon and turn it away from it’s orbit. It would take a while though, perhaps many many millennia by which time the volcano will have probably become extinct, and then much much longer for the Earth’s interior to actually cool, but just a thought. NB: removing the moon would have fairly disasterous consequences I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![This\_Just\_In\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@This\_Just\_In\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/This_Just_In_2)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/36 "2010-04-22T18:39:52Z")
“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” -Ripley Actually, I wonder if we nuked the damn thing enough we could blow whatever is left off the top off the volcano to get the built up pressure out quicker. More ash but for a shorter time. We would probably need to bore down into the solid rock surrounding the volcano in order to place the nukes. The ash will now be radioactive but I imagine at least half the world would live. ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/37 "2010-04-22T19:00:11Z")
First, you have to take the earth off of its tilted axis and get the axis perfectly vertical. Second, you eliminate the moon. This should stop or seriously diminish tectonic shifting (I think). ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/38 "2010-04-22T22:04:02Z")
Let’s just have Chuck Norris go over and piss in the crater, extinguishing the volcanic activity totally. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/39 "2010-04-22T22:44:51Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > Do tidal forces keep the Earth’s interior hot? > [@DirkGntly](#): > > First, you have to take the earth off of its tilted axis and get the axis perfectly vertical. Second, you eliminate the moon. This should stop or seriously diminish tectonic shifting (I think). Tidal forces make some contributions to the Earth’s interior heating, but the major factor is radioactivity. Eliminating the moon will have little effect on tectonic processes or volcanism. ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944/40 "2010-04-23T17:47:53Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Tidal forces make some contributions to the Earth’s interior heating, but the major factor is radioactivity. Eliminating the moon will have little effect on tectonic processes or volcanism. Duh…I knew that… So we have to kill the core!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shutting-down-the-eyjafjallajokull-volcanos-eruption-with-science/536944.md?page=3)