North Korea's nuclear test 'could jolt volcano back to life'

[humble3d]

North Korea's nuclear test 'could jolt volcano back to life'  

 

Experts say one of Mount Paekdu's previous eruptions was 'one of the largest explosive events in human history'

 

Seismologists have warned that North Korea's repeated nuclear tests could cause its highest mountain Mount Paekdu to erupt - and they add that one of the volcano's previous eruptions was "one of the largest explosive events in human history".

 

More than 9,000 feet high, the volcano straddles the border between North Korea and China and last erupted in 1903. Experts have warned of increasing seismic activity beneath the peak in recent years, however, including seismic uplift and rising levels of sulphur dioxide, suggesting that the magma chamber is expanding.

 

Just 72 miles from North Korea's Punggye-ri proving grounds - where satellite images suggest that Pyongyang may already be ready to carry out a fifth underground nuclear test - scientists believe another detonation could jolt the dormant volcano back into life.

 

In a paper published in Nature, four South Korean scientists, led by Hong Tae-kyung, stated, "Strong ground motions induce large dynamic stress changes that may disturb the magma chamber of a volcano, thus accelerating the volcanic activity.

 

"An underground nuclear explosion near an active volcano constitutes a direct threat to the volcano".

Mr Hong, a professor of seismology at Seoul's Yonsei University, said the Mount Paekdu eruption in 946 produced pyroclastic flows nearly 1,000 feet thick while ash 2 inches thick coated parts of northern Japan, more than 650 miles away.

 

North Korea's most recent nuclear test, conducted on January 6, was the equivalent of a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, with Prof Hong warning that "underground

nuclear explosions with magnitudes of 5.0 - 7.6 may induce overpressure in the magma chamber" and trigger an eruption.

 

In April 2015, Kim Jong-un climbed Mount Paektu, wearing a suit and dress shoes, according to state media in Pyongyang.

 

Mount Paektu is nearly twenty times the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza and is considered the holy mountain of the North Korean regime, with state propaganda claiming that Kim Jong-il, the former ruler, was born in a shack on its slopes while his father, Kim Il-sung, led a guerilla army against the occupying Japanese.

 

Records show, however, that Kim Jong-il was born in a refugee camp in Russia.

 

'He could drive at the age of 3'

 

Kim Jong-un was a child prodigy who could drive at just three-years-old, according to North Korea's school curriculum. At 9, the future leader was winning yachting races, pupils are told.

 

'He's had plastic surgery'

 

"The regime wants its people to see Kim Jong-un as Great Leader Kim Il-sung reincarnated. They fattened him up and gave him a thorough training — and plastic surgery, too, some even say — to make him look just like his grandfather," Kim Kwang-in told the New York Times. 

 

'He's the Sexiest Man Alive'

 

In 2012, China's Communist Party online newspaper fell for a report on the satirical website The Onion naming the North Korean dictator as the 'Sexiest Man Alive'.
'He's addicted to cheese'

 

In 2014, Kim Jong-un's rumoured bout of ill health was widely attributed to an avid fondness of Emmental. He reportedly grew to love it while studying in Switzerland and 'gorged on the cheese so much that he has ballooned in size and is now walking with a limp', according to tabloid reports.

 

'He conquered North Korea's highest mountain'

In April 2015, Kim Jong-un climbed North Korea's highest mountain Mount Paektu, wearing a suit and dress shoes, according to state media in Pyongyang. 

At 9000ft, Paektu is nearly twenty times the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/12162388/North-Koreas-nuclear-test-could-jolt-volcano-back-to-life.html

 

[Batu69]

Thread moved from The Chat Bar forum.

[jtmulc]

Pardon my language, but oh shit.  It blows every 100 years or so, so we're already due to have an eruption.  Setting off underground nukes near it is like doing this:

That's a lake in the crater of the volcano, averaging 4.13 km wide and 213 m deep, plus snow on its peaks for most of the year.  When that thing blows, the pyroclastic flow is going to destroy everything and the ash spewed into the sky will probably ground air travel to Japan and Korea.

[vibranium]

That does not scare Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un. He plans to swim up the lava flow in his underpants.

 

I worry for the citizens of North Korea.