• Question: How would you stop a Volcano from erupting?

    Asked by to Becky on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Rebecca Williams

      Rebecca Williams answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Hi blueminecarts,

      What a great question! It isn’t possible to stop a volcano from erupting. Often, in the movies, people have tried to stop volcanoes from erupting by putting a bomb in them. But this won’t work because you’d need a HUGE nuclear bomb to have any impact on a volcano – and then the radiation from the bomb would have a far deadlier effect than any volcano could.

      People have bombed lava flows before though, to try and stop the lava flows from flowing into towns and cities. This was first done in 1935 at Mauna Loa in Hawaii. There is some very old video of that here: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675069574_bomb-Mauna-Loa_divert-lava_Keystone-B-3A_Keystone-LB-6A_United-States-fliers

      They’ve also tried bombing lava flows at Mt Etna, Italy, but it didn’t really work.

      The two most successful times humans have been able to divert lava flows was at Mt Etna, Italy in 1983 and in Heimaey in Iceland in 1973. At Mt Etna, they built big dams of soil and they saved a town from being run over by lava.

      On the island Heimaey, the eruption of a small volcano called Eldfell was making lava flows which threatened to ruin the port of the town. The port was very important to the island for it fishing, so it was very important to try and stop the lava from filling it in. They used the seawater and pumped it onto the lava flows using big hoses. This cooled the front of the lava which solidified it enough for the lava to be diverted. You can watch a short video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghl33n26d44

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