A Compelling Read!

"Unleashing Colter's Hell is a page turner that is difficult to put down. The historical information and context is fascinating. I highly recommend this novel." That's the latest review from an Amazon reader of Unleashing Colter's Hell. 

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Is America vulnerable to environmental warfare?

Teton Dam Failure, Wyoming ~ www.waterarchives.org

Slate magazine is running a story on the potential threat environmental warfare poses to infrastructure like dams and power plants.  The story highlights the battle over the Mosul dam in Northern Iraq and the damage it could do to thousands of people downstream if it were to fail or be destroyed.

The author highlights a few dramatic and horrifying acts of environmental warfare. Paul Mutter in his article Dam Warfare, calls Iraq's hydro infrastructure the country's soft underbelly. Water as a weapon has the potential to do great damage in Iraq, given the country's reliance on the Tigress and Euphrates. Mutter expands on the historic record showing that nearly every major modern conflict has targeted or considered dams as targets.  Using water as soldiers is the mindset driving these actions. 

What Mutter and Slate's Keating don't do is consider America's vulnerability to environmental warfare.  Unfortunately, our exposure is huge.  America has an extensive hydro power system that includes upwards of 75,000 dams.  These run the gamut from small several acre facilities to world class facilities like Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams. 

Security and maintenance at these facilities also varies. Some are very well maintained and extremely well secure.  Others like Washington's Wanapum Dam are teetering on failure. Like Iraq, this hydro power infrastructure is also America's soft underbelly.

Environmental Warfare, or the modification and destruction of the environment as a weapon of war, is the central focus of Unleashing Colter's Hell.  The story centers on a plot to ignite an atomic bomb in Yellowstone  and trigger an eruption of the park's super volcano. A Yellowstone eruption would bury much of the eastern two thirds of America in tens of feet of ash. The eruption would destroy much of America's transportation, agriculture, water, power, and housing infrastructure. It would also likely cast the entire world into a new ice age. The devastation would kill millions and likely deal America a blow from which it could not recover.

Seems far fetched? Not so to defense experts and military officials. For example, the British Defense ministry predicts by 2045 that environmental warfare will become a major threat.

America's agriculture, forests, water supplies are also vulnerable to these types of unconventional attacks and much will have to be done to harden and fortify these assets.  But in the end, all our efforts can't stop every committed terrorist. 

We will have to be vigilant.

What are your thoughts? Is America vulnerable to environmental warfare?

The source of my inspiration keeps me up at night

George Hodan

I’m often asked where I get the inspiration for my novels.  The quick answer is it often comes from worries that keep me up at night. I’ve found plumbing the depths of ones deepest fears is a rich environment within which to find themes and setting for my thrillers.

The more irrational and unlikely the fear, the better story it makes.

Humanity likes to think it’s in control of its destiny.  We tell ourselves we are smart and capable enough to handle any crisis.  And why shouldn’t we believe this?  We’ve dodged every threat so far be it the plague or nuclear war.

But this is a false sense of optimism, for there are threats to humanity that no amount of human ingenuity can prevent.  Things like extinction events. 

In my first novel, Unleashing Colter's Hell the plot hangs on one such natural disaster that if it humanity may not survive.  The story is set in Yellowstone national park, where I had the honor of working as a park ranger.  Most visitors to the park know about its geysers and bears.  But few appreciate the fact that Yellowstone is the world’s largest super volcano. If it were to erupt as it has in the recent past the northwest corner of Wyoming would be unlivable for centuries. The Eastern half the United States would be buried under tens of feet of ash, and the world’s temperature would drop to levels not seen in tens of thousands of year. Much of the world’s agriculture, transportation, and water supplies would be destroyed, millions if not billions of people would die.

Scientists tell us it’s not a matter of if Yellowstone will erupt but when.  Even more terrifying, if Yellowstone were to begin waking up today, there is nothing we can do to stop it.

That’s the backdrop for Unleashing Colter’s Hell, where a mad man has acquired an atomic bomb, with the plan to detonate it in Yellowstone, triggering a cataclysmic eruption. Park Ranger Grayson Cole is all that stands between the world and Armageddon.

World destruction isn’t the central fear of my second novel, Lost Cause. No, this time it’s revolution, or more precisely the start of a second Civil War which serves as the organizing fear. America has enjoyed more than 150 years of domestic peace since the Civil War. People have come to expect that civil war is impossible in modern society and the American ideals of democracy and freedom will continue forever.  But are we justified in this assumption? Lost Cause, presents a story, where some don’t except that end of the civil war. It’s merely half time, is their motto. Seems far-fetched?  Not really, for there are organizations and politicians that exposes the dismantling of America.  It appears our politics is more divided than ever. Fertile grounds for civil war.

My third novel focuses on invasion. Not invasion from a foreign army, rather invasion that’s more alien in nature. I didn’t say these fears have to be rationale; they just have to evoke a deep emotional response. Look for Need to Know in 2016.

So what keeps you up at night?

New Research: Yellowstone volcano larger than previously thought

April 18, 2013: New research out of the University of Utah shows the magma chamber under Yellowstone national park is bigger than previously thought.  What's more, scientists believe the molten rock in this chamber is rising at an unprecedented rate displacing the surface crust.  Knowing the size of the chamber and the rate at which magma rising can help gauge the size of a future eruption. 

Past Yellowstone eruptions have buried much of the Midwest in tens of feet of ash and blotted out the sun for weeks.  If Yellowstone were to have an eruption similar to its most recent blast, it could literally be the end of the civilization as we know it.

Read Unleashing Colter's Hell for my take on what might happen if this volcano were to erupt, and who would want that to happen.

Here is a great info graphic on the geology of the Yellowstone caldera.


Source: OurAmazingPlanet.com: Infographic: The Geology of Yellowstone

World's Deadliest Volcanoes: Yellowstone #1

The season premiere of NOVA was a story on the world's deadliest volcanoes. Unknown to most people just below their feet is a hell of unimaginable pressure and heat that fuels the world's thousands of volcanoes. Scientists around the world study these volcanoes in an attempt to better predict the size, scope, and time of future eruptions. Better predictions helps protect life and property.

However, some volcanoes like the one under Yellowstone would unleash staggering damage upon the world's civilization and changes to the earth's climate that no amount of predictive precision would help prevent. At best, any Yellowstone eruption would require society to make significant adaptions and change, possibly throwing humanity back into a stone age.

Unleashing Colter's Hell, my new novel, is about a terrorist attempt to trigger a Yellowstone eruption and unleashing the devastating damage upon the United States. A single park ranger and a rookie FBI agent are all that stand in the way of Armageddon.

Do you live near a volcano? What preparations for an eruptions have you made?

National Parks a Democratic Idea

National Parks have been called "America's best idea" and I heartily agree. For me what makes national parks great is that at their core they are truly democratic.

Setting aside lands as a national park grew out of America's European roots. In Europe common lands were held by the crown and reserved mainly for the elite. In 1872 America rejected the model of parks as playgrounds for the rich, when it established Yellowstone as the world's first national park. Since then nearly 400 additional special places have been added to our park system. Many of these sites were first advanced by concerned citizens who believed their forest, river, mountain deserved national park designation. Today Americans across the country including those living around Mount St. Helens are urging park recognition for their nearby wonders.

Unleashing Colter's Hell is set in Yellowstone and tells the story of a terrorist strike at our nation's heart, at democracy itself. Look for the novel to come out soon.

What place would you add to the park system?

Yellowstone Volcano Patiently Waits to Unleash Devastation

At the heart of Unleashing Colter's Hell, a new novel by Sean Smith, is the Yellowstone super volcano. A volcano that few know about, but when it erupts will destroy the United States as we know it. According to scientists, the volcano unleashing its destructive fury every 600,000 years. The next eruption is overdue!

The earth's core is a chaotic place, volcanoes grow and rattle nearly every day alerting us to pending danger. Yellowstone is no different. Fingers of molten rock thrust toward the surface patiently waiting for the right moment to spew hell on earth.

In Unleashing Colter's Hell, a lone terrorist has acquired the means to trigger an eruption. A park ranger and rookie FBI agent are all that stand between salvation and Armageddon.

Look for the book this winter.