NASA believes the Yellowstone supervolcano is a greater threat to life on Earth than any other potential natural disaster, including plummeting asteroids, so it’s working on a plan.
NASA’s researchers have told the BBC they have explored what it would take to avert a super volcano catastrophe.
The answer: find a way to cool the magma down.
Supervolcanos only spill over when the molten rock is hot enough to become highly fluid.
In a slightly cooler state, it gets thicker. Stickier.
It’s not going anywhere fast.
To achieve this, the Jet Propulsion Labs team calculated a super volcano on the brink of eruption would have to be cooled some 35 per cent.
They propose to do this by pricking the supervolcano’s surface, to let off steam.
But this in itself poses risks.
Drill too deep, and the vent could cause an explosive depressurisation that may set off the exact kind of eruption the scientists were trying to avoid.
Heated water rising from deep under Yellowstone already serves to cool the magma pool, as in the case of the famous geyser, Old Faithful, but NASA scientists think a project to limit the risk further, in a controlled fashion would pay for itself at the same time.
Considering the nearly incalculable cost of excavating and reconstructing two thirds of the nation from beneath a blanket of volcanic ash, the proposal may have some merit. Steam generated by tapping and releasing the volcanic heat could be used to drive power turbines.
Source: News.com.au
I knew u were messing with the
Weather!!!!
I say we have the government place into effect immediately an earthquake ban! After all an earthquake like that could kill more people than all the people who have died from gun violence! But I doubt if it would be as many that have died from medical malpractice!