What would happen to a volcano if you were to clogg it before it erupts?

Answer 1

In effect, they are already clogged before they erupt. The stronger the material, the greater the pressure built before eruption, resulting in explosive eruptions that do much greater damage.

Answer 2

You cant clog avolcano unless it erupts.
It must have a hole to clog.
And then if you cover it with cement etc, it will burst through and theres nothing you can do. You cant control Nature.
As magma continued squeezing into the mountain, the pressure inside kept growing and significant swelling occurred. Why didn’t the magma come out of the volcano as a lava flow? There are two reasons for that. First of all the whole summit of Mount St. Helens worked as a huge cap stopping the magma. Secondly, the magma was very stiff, like toothpaste and this type of magma doesn’t form liquid lava flows. The north side of the mountain gradually gave way to the pressure and the mountain was actually growing on the north side about five to eight feet per day. How long did / will it take you to grow five feet’? Fractures developed on the swelling mountain through which water reached the hot magma below. Water turned to steam which was released in numerous small ash and steam explosions between March 27 and May 14.

"Yellowstone is a living volcano," says Robert B. Smith, a Utah seismologist who has spent much of his career studying one of the most dramatic geologic stories ever told.

It's no ordinary volcano. Yellowstone is one of Earth's few supervolcanoes. The last eruption, 10,000 times greater than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens, changed the face of North America and wreaked havoc around the globe.

Smith and his colleagues -- who have unearthed the astonishing narrative of destruction and re-creation -- tell us that while there are no signs of imminent doom, about 100 catastrophic eruptions have occurred in the past 17 million years. The latest three happened at 2 million, 1.2 million and 630,000 years ago. Almost certainly, it will happen again.

That's no reason to cancel vacation plans. On the contrary, it's another good reason to visit the park. The wildlife, pristine scenery, geysers and hot springs are all as delightful as ever.

Answer 3

I doubt there is a single exit point for an eruption - there are multiple fissures, usually.
If the eruption were to happen only at the top of a cone, and you were to clog it with a huge boulder, doing so would not, unfortunately, stop an eruption.
Pressure would build and the area directly under the boulder would blow up, or some other weak point on the volcano would simply open up, and relase the pressure from there.

Answer 4

Your question is purely hypothetical. Your hypothetical answer lies in the realm of pressure. Assume your volcano was a typical cone-shaped volcano. Assume liquid lava was rising within the cone. Assume you were able to plug the hole at the top of the cone. The results could be many. If the strength of your plug could withstand the geo-pressure causing the lava to rise, and not fail, AND if the strata (rock, dirt, what have you) of the volcanic cone could also withstand the geo-pressure behind the rising lava, then the lava would eventually cool and solidify the volcano. It's simply a matter of pressure and a structure's ability to resist it. If, for example the plug held pressure, but the strata of the volcano could not, then the lava would flow from wherever the strata fractured. Bear in mind Volcano Killer, you can't fool mother nature. More than likely, if a situation developed where lava were moving upward in a volcano, the pressure causing this would be significant. If you plugged Mother Nature's pressure outlet, the pressure would build and build 'till.......well who knows what might happen. But it would likely be violent! You probably wouldn't want to be where you could watch it.

Answer 5

Sounds like a really bad Tom Hanks movie. I think he possiblity of clogging a volcano is just as impossible as it would be to divert an astroid from hitting earth. So to answer your question nothing would happen, that is the volcano would continue to erupt...assuming that's what it would have done sans any volcano clogging action.

Answer 6

When it erupted, you would have a lot of Flying Dutchmen.

Answer 7

if you close off all possible exits it would be contained and nothing would happen,just like the heat in the center of the earth.

Answer 8

If you could clog it, the sides would blow out.
Like Mt. St. Helen's did.

Answer 9

The heat would eventually cause the plug to melt, or if the pressure became great enough.........well, use your imagination.....