The Hanford tunnel collapse post comment thread got hopelessly confused with other disasters like commenting in comic sans, so here’s another thread where you can leave your questions and panicked comments.
Will a North Korean nuclear test cause a volcanic eruption?
Spoiler: No. Even nuclear blasts are trivial in comparison to the energy of natural processes.
The article looks at previous nuclear testing experience, including the most likely to cause an earthquake:
the largest underground thermonuclear tests conducted by the US were detonated in Amchitka at the western end of the Aleutian Islands and the largest of these was the 5 megaton codename Cannikin test which occurred on November 6, 1971. Cannikin had a body wave magnitude of 6.9 and it did not trigger any earthquakes in the seismically active Aleutian Islands.
And open thread, but please do not comment in comic sans for the sanity of other commenters.
cain
Oh boy, I live about 45-50 miles in Portland metro area. Trump has nobody on the ground he can put in charge because he hasn’t hired anybody. Also thanks for politicizing science… if something happens you got no climate scientists to answer what would happen if that happens. Dumbass. (looks like it is benign, but hey, it would be a shame to let a good freakout go to waste)
Also starlord save us!!! (ETA)
TenguPhule
We only have to worry that a North Korean Nuclear Test will inspire Trump to try a nuclear test of his own. Just to say that he can.
Mike J
Speaking of NoKo, when and if the EMP hysteria starts, can you do a post on why it’s not much of a threat?
satby
No questions, just wanted to give a virtual high-five to this comment:
?
TenguPhule
@Mike J: To you, maybe. Those of us actually in range of the missiles have bigger problems.
NotMax
Earthquakes?
We don’t need no es-stinkin’ nukes. We’ve got fracking.
Expecting B-J threads to stay 100% on topic? It is to laugh.
sharl
Welp, I’m a bit behind on episodes of Harry Shearer’s weekly podcast Le Show, but given that one of his favorite topics is matters of radioactive waste and other manifestations of nuclear energy and weapons (mostly the former), I’ll have to catch this weekend’s episode to see if he says anything about the Hanford tunnel collapse.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mike J: Within a certain segment of the political spectrum, EMP is always a threat from everywhere. There has been some upset about it recently. I touched on it while trying to figure out how many nukes North Korea is likely to have (toward the end).
Jeffrey Lewis has commented pungently on EMP, most recently here and more seriously here.
Bottom line: Does a country like North Korea want to do the extra development for an EMP weapon? Or, if they’ve got the missiles and nukes, why not just take out a city?
I’ll write more if there seems like a need for it, but this is a pretty good start.
swbarnes2
I was told that Comic Sans is helpful for people with dyslexia.
Mike J
@TenguPhule: Id didn’t say there was no threat from North Korean nukes, I said EMP wasn’t much of a threat, even if they did have an ICBM that could put a high altitude nuke over the US. And yes, there are people out there actively trying to whip up hysteria about it.
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
As their missiles are at the heart SCUDs, (increasing) unreliability of every add-on, upgrade and fuel change is endemic.
TenguPhule
@Mike J:
They can put a nuke (in theory) over the US. It just happens to be the part which is an island floating in the Pacific.
NotMax
@NotMax
No edit function.
Make that unreliability from, not unreliability of.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Didn’t we have a problem during Gulf War I where our incredible ECM discovered that SCUDs were too stupid to be fooled?
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Guam, maybe. And a big maybe at that.
Hawaii? Not on your tintype, yet.
TenguPhule
@NotMax: A thousand mile margin of error isn’t exactly comforting.
NotMax
@TenguPhule
For now, pshaw. Targeting is a bitch. Too, so far as am aware from unclassified data, DPRK has not yet been able to come up with warhead capable nukes of any type or yield.
Oatler.
Is there an option for comic sans? Not that I would…
NotMax
@NotMax
For greater clarity, make that read warhead compatible.
/hindsight
hellslittlestangel
@Cheryl Rofer: It never hurts to be mindful that, unlike a certain other country led by an unpredictable nutjob, North Korea has never dropped a nuclear weapon on civilian populations.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@satby: I know; I want to gay marry that comment. It’s so wonderful. Thank you Cheryl Rofer, for:
Dan Borroff
Hanford: The world war II legacy that keeps on leaking shows the tip of the iceberg.
NotMax
Thread needs music.
Tom Lehrer, “We Will All Go Together When We Go.”
On topic, even.
When the air becomes uranious
We will all go simultaneous
Ten Bears
The energy capacity may indeed be trivial to a natural eruption, but until we actually cap off a nuke inside an active volcano like Mt St Helens, or on top of an active volcano like Mt Rainer or the bubble on the west side of the Sisters east of Eugene, or even at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake, the world’s largest active super-volcano, we don’t know if a thermonuclear test would trigger a volcano.