[gremlinsinc]

At first I thought that was kinda crazy, cause he'd 'know' pretty quick it was a volcano, but then I realized some of the 'deadmen switches' are triggered by seismic actions, or at least that's what I'd heard/read elsewhere, maybe it's not. Would kinda suck if something automatically launched because of a geological event, not an actual attack, and it actually wasn't Putin causing it.

[ggm]

Two conditions have to be met for a deadman switch to work. Firstly, its armed. Secondly, a FAILURE TO CONTACT event of some kind. (my words). But, its not momentary fail. Its got trigger conditions and gates. It isn't an immediate response option. Its the "at the end..." logic in MAD.

So for an earthquake there would be a loud "boom" and there might be some initial failure to contact. But then there would be cell service, satellite, ultra-long wavelength comms, all kinds of alternate paths home. There would be a distinct lack of radiological problems. A complete absence of any sign of protracted single-strike attack at scale on your nation state, the continuance of evident non-nuclear life as normal (normal! I mean who had pandemics in their 2022 yearbook before 2020...)

Having a deadman switch which was capable of being triggered solely by a local geological event absent all other context would be very bad design.