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So, could the Air Force just drop a penetrating bomb on Mt St Helens and get this wait over with?

A

AndrewR

Lifer
I wonder if that would work? Blow off some of the top layers and release the pressure. I wouldn't call it a "controlled" eruption, but at least we'd know WHEN.

Any geologists in here that can estimate the probablility of success?
 
I've been wondering the same thing myself.

Put a nice hole in the top of the lava dome & see what happens.

Viper GTS
 
Originally posted by: Mwilding
Which scars your face more - squeezing a zit or letting it develop naturally?
Click to expand...

This wouldn't exactly be squeezing it, this would be poking it with a needle. We wouldn't be increasing the pressure, merely releasing it.

A better example it would seem would be squeezing a plastic bottle & poking a large hole vs a small one - The large hole spills more but it doesn't go as far.

In effect they have a 5 mile radius to play with, if they can keep the damage within that area they'll be much better off.

Viper GTS
 
I don't think we can penetrate that far into the ground, can we? We're talking about perhaps a mile(that's out of my ass.. could be more, could be less) to the magma chamber...
 
I don't think we have anything that would reach that deep without taking out nearby civilization. A MOAB only goes 200ft IIRC, which is just scratching the surface.
 
Originally posted by: Eli
I don't think we can penetrate that far into the ground, can we? We're talking about perhaps a mile(that's out of my ass.. could be more, could be less) to the magma chamber...
Click to expand...

They've made it sound like it's a lot closer to the surface.

Especially with the venting steam & such...

Then again I don't know, I just want to see what would happen!

Viper GTS
 
The last I heard it is thought that the magma is about 1/2 a mile below the dome at this point but is slowly moving towards the surface.
 
Lol, i was thinking the same thing, I am supposed to fly out of seatac this week, i just want to get by the damn mnt.
 
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Originally posted by: Eli
I don't think we can penetrate that far into the ground, can we? We're talking about perhaps a mile(that's out of my ass.. could be more, could be less) to the magma chamber...
Click to expand...

They've made it sound like it's a lot closer to the surface.

Especially with the venting steam & such...

Then again I don't know, I just want to see what would happen!

Viper GTS
Click to expand...
Well.. close to the surface is realitive. 😉 The Earth's crust is tens of miles thick.

After a quick google, it appears they believe the main magma chamber is about 5 miles below the surface.

I do believe that they think the current eruptions are being caused by a small chamber of magma perhaps left over from the 1980 eruption, but maybe I'm understanding that wrong.. I can't find any depth data. In any case, I don't think opening up the main magma chamber would be a good idea, even if we could. 😉
 
After some looking around, it seems the average lava dome is about 100m thick.

The GBU-28s can only get through about 100ft of earth or 20ft of concrete. I am guessing the dome material is somewhat brittle, so I guess it could be done with a few bombs.

Though, I have no idea what would actually happen after that.
 
Man, it's kinda crazy scary to think that St. Helens' eruption in 1980 was pretty small beans in terms of it's past eruptions.

A previous eruption was 13 times more powerful than this eruption.
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:Q

 
Well, I don't think it would have to go all the way into the magma chamber or even penetrate to the magma however far it is underground -- the bomb would just have to weaken the overhead material to allow the pressure already present to break through. If you have 100m of rock which is holding the pressure steady, and you bore a 50m hole into it, you've decreased the pressure handling by half (no idea really, just pulling this out of my @ss for illustration).
 
The kid in me wants to see big explosions and magma, but the adult in me cowers at the thought of an eruption disrupting my class schedule.
 
Why are you all so against the mountain rebuilding itself? From what I have heard this is going to be a dome building eruption.
 
Y'all know that MOAB stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast, right? Air blast != penetrator. It's a bomb meant to intimidate more than anything.
 
Originally posted by: ThePresence
Y'all know that MOAB stands for Massive Ordnance Air Blast, right? Air blast != penetrator. It's a bomb meant to intimidate more than anything.
Click to expand...

Unless you are standing anywhere near it when it goes off. It won't penetrate for crap, but it can still do a nice job.
 
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