A terror suspect had planned to blow up Yellowstone National Park in a bid to trigger a catastrophic natural disaster.
Tunisian student Chiheb Esseghaier, who is currently on trial in Canada, wanted to bring "death and destruction" to the United States by causing the massive supervolcano beneath the national park to erupt, according to The Candian Press.
Although experts have long been divided on the impact an eruption of the supervolcano may have, most agree that it would prove to be catastrophic for the entire world.
In his third week of testimony, an undercover FBI agent said Esseghaier was "very passionate" about the idea of triggering the Yellowstone volcano.
"Wouldn't it be great if my enemies' worst national disaster could happen?" the 30-year-old suspect allegedly said about the national park, which straddles Wyoming, Idaho and Montana while sitting atop a swelling reservoir of magma 55 miles across and 30 miles wide.
But the Université du Québec student eventually realized the idea to be hopeless, UK MailOnline reported.
"No. We cannot do anything to make the volcano erupt. It's very deep. I don't have any access," Esseghaier is alleged to have told the agent.
Additionally, the 30-year-old suspect and his co-accused, Palestinian national Raed Jaser, had also considered poisoning soldiers and killing world leaders with a sniper rifle.
Yellowstone Park's supervolcano, which has lain dormant for 70,000 years, has had past eruptions which were a thousand times more powerful than the one in Mount St Helens in 1980, including one that covered the whole of North America and affected the global climate with an effect similar to a nuclear winter about 640,000 years ago.
"If it were to explode today, some say, the Yellowstone volcano would cover cities as far as 1,000 miles away with a layer of ash up to 10ft deep, killing all wildlife and making as much as two thirds of the U.S. uninhabitable," UK MailOnline reported.
"However last year a study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) poured cold water on the apocalyptic vision, concluding that such a scenario would not come to pass. USGS said computer modeling suggested that cities up to 300 miles from the park would be covered by up to three feet of ash and cities further afield in the Midwest would be covered by a few inches."
Meanwhile, both Jaser and Esseghaier have denied the charges against them.
