For our mental health (and wealth), why not consider all these potential "doomsdays" events (super eruptions, asteroids, etc.) not only as "threats" - which they are - but also as "opportunities" ? Is it completely non sense to think of any future use... of volcanic magma and gases to solve our energy problems ? What are saying the oil industry specialists about this potential energetic unlimited resource ? There is yet at least one American engineer and businessman (I cannot recall his name) who originate the idea some years ago to exploit asteroids for their mineral richnesses. And now, NASA will land a module of one of these asteroids ! Think about 25000 cubic miles of volcanic magma as a source of energy... GEE Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! !
Not at all nonsense, they will definitely be used in the future, but that time is still far away. Humans will travel to other planets and the boundaries between countries will vanish before they begun to look more closely at earth.
I can't see why it shouldn't be technically feasible to get a drill-hole down to just above a magma chamber, (preferably not into the chamber, 'cos u tend to lose pipes) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! pump water down there, and use the resulting steam to drive generators and provide electric power for cities for X thousand years.
I think they could be a resource if we were actually taking action....It is something that concerns me. Our government doesn't seem to be taking the threat seriously. They should be looking at ways to alleviate the situation instead of acting like it will never happen..This is something that could mean the end of American civilization as we know it. Not a minor problem...Burying our head isn't going to do any good.
Effectively what they already do in Iceland. There was talk when I was at school in the late 70s/early 80s of doing this in Cornwall - there's a huge granite batholith under Cornwall which is still cooling off. Idea was simply to drill 2 holes: water gets dropped down the first and steam comes up the 2nd powering a turbine...... Nowt ever came of it though. I've often thought this seems the obvious solution to our energy needs: limitless, clean, environmentally friendly...... Just need to refine the technology
They use geothermal power in Iceland, I think Italy and several other countries. One of the problems though is that after about 20 years you need to drill another hole somewhere else because youve taken out the heat of the rocks quicker than it is being transferred in from surrounding rocks. Theoretically you could tap the mantle, but over time I suppose it would help increase heat transfer form the centre of the earth adn thus slow everything down, over a long enough period.
There's such a lot of geothermal energy available in Yellowstone. Drill the two holes. When one cools too much, use the other to give the first one time to warm up again. You might also drill a large hole and install a turbine in the shaft. Compressed gasses should come out as well as heat. The more you bleed off, the less the danger from an eruption.
The ancient Romans, back 2000 years ago, used to drill wells to alleviate the threat of earthquakes. Their reasoning ran like this; we know that the more solid the medium, the more easily an earthquake wave travels through it. Therefore we dig the wells, and the wave energy which should be travelling through the ground is instead dissipated by having to travel through empty air i.e. the wellshaft. Don't know how effective it was, but at least the had the right idea.
If you decide to drill some holes in Yellowstone, for obvious reasons, try and avoid the 'bulge or mound swelling' that is currently growing larger in size on the bottom of Yellowstone lake. Novacane
Well, it will blow one time or another. Why not now? At least then it will be all over with for the next 100000 years or so. p.s. I don't live in North America.
