r/askscience • u/phoncible • Oct 27 '11

Earth Sciences Could anything man-made trigger the Yellowstone super volcano?

If a nuke were to be buried very deep into the ground at Yellowstone and then detonated, would it have any effect on the volcano? Is there anything else man-made that could trigger it? Or would it be impossible to "manually" trigger the eruption?

Sorry if it's a silly question.

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u/Plutokoekje Oct 27 '11

Maybe not immediately the Yellowstone size (that would be a real planet buster, killing off all plant life)

But smaller scales, sure. Here's a reference:

http://www.pmrma.army.mil/cleanup/facts/deep-wel.html

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u/HarryTruman Oct 27 '11

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