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NASA to Stop a Doomsday Supervolcano by Stealing its Heat
Popular Mechanics ^ | August 18, 2017 | Avery Thompson

Posted on 08/20/2017 8:45:36 AM PDT by EveningStar

Beneath Yellowstone National Park is a giant volcano. The heat from this volcano powers all of the park's famous geysers and hot springs, so most tourists probably don't worry about having tons of hot magma under their feet. But perhaps they should: The Yellowstone supervolcano is a disaster waiting to happen.

The supervolcano erupts about every 600,000 years, and it's been about that long since the last eruption. That means the volcano could erupt any day now, and if it does it'll send enough dust and ash into the sky to blot out the sun for years, along with blowing a 25-mile-wide crater in the western U.S. That's why a group of NASA scientists and engineers are developing a plan to prevent an eruption by stealing the volcano's heat...

NASA's plan is to drill a hole into the side of the volcano and pump water through it. When the water comes back out, it'll be heated to over 600 degrees, slowly cooling the volcano. The team hopes that given enough time, this process will take enough heat from the volcano to prevent it from ever erupting...

(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: caldera; doomsday; heybooboo; hubris; jellystone; nasa; stupidity; supervolcano; volcano; wyoming; yellowstone; yellowstonepark
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1 posted on 08/20/2017 8:45:36 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

I hope their models are good. I can imagine a scenario where their mitigation would make things worse, not better.


2 posted on 08/20/2017 8:49:03 AM PDT by rightwingcrazy
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To: EveningStar
Hmph. Yeah, we can trust a space agency whose primary mission for the last ten years has been muslim outreach to do this job without killing everyone on earth.

Suuuuuuuuuuure.

3 posted on 08/20/2017 8:49:43 AM PDT by 60Gunner (The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. - Plato)
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To: EveningStar

I often wondered why no one else thought of that.

Just punch a hole in the bottom of the Wyoming Ocean and let it cool the Magna


4 posted on 08/20/2017 8:51:46 AM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: rightwingcrazy

You’re thinking Army Corps of Engineers.


5 posted on 08/20/2017 8:51:56 AM PDT by txhurl
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To: EveningStar

NASA will kill all of us if we don’t stop them...


6 posted on 08/20/2017 8:52:32 AM PDT by GOPJ (Start by tearing down statues ...burning books, and eventually you go after people - John Davidson)
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To: EveningStar

I have complete faith in rocket scientist pouring water on a volcano, they are experts from the govt - nothing could possibly go wrong.


7 posted on 08/20/2017 8:52:52 AM PDT by Jolla
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To: EveningStar

Why is NASA involved in this?


8 posted on 08/20/2017 8:53:04 AM PDT by pas
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To: EveningStar

9 posted on 08/20/2017 8:53:25 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: EveningStar
The catch:

"Of course, this plan is the definition of "long-term." In order to siphon off enough heat to neutralize the threat of the volcano, the geothermal generator would have to be run continuously for hundreds or thousands of years."

10 posted on 08/20/2017 8:53:34 AM PDT by TaxPayer2000
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To: EveningStar

I love it when government tries to “help” nature. They’ll probably “help” give this volcano an easy exit for blasting out its pent up energy.

Who’s the goofball in NASA that devised this plan?


11 posted on 08/20/2017 8:53:35 AM PDT by Jim W N
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To: rightwingcrazy

12 posted on 08/20/2017 8:53:55 AM PDT by struggle (The)
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To: EveningStar

If they’re going to do that, they might as well just build a giant power plant.


13 posted on 08/20/2017 8:55:22 AM PDT by Husker24
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To: EveningStar

You mean like the entire Yellowstone park is currently doing?
Those geysers and pools are hot for a reason?


14 posted on 08/20/2017 8:55:55 AM PDT by calljack (Sometimes your worst nightmare is just a start.)
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To: rightwingcrazy

They mean to frac the volcano. There going to need bigger water supply.


15 posted on 08/20/2017 8:56:18 AM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: Jim 0216
I love it when government tries to “help” nature. They’ll probably “help” give this volcano an easy exit for blasting out its pent up energy.

Who’s the goofball in NASA that devised this plan?

One of NASA's finest


16 posted on 08/20/2017 9:00:43 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (RuPaul and Yertle - our illustrious Republican leaders up the Hill - God help us!)
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To: EveningStar
Nice idea but doubt it will work. Why??

Every time it rains or snows, it supposedly would be doing the same thing....and it hasn't worked yet.

17 posted on 08/20/2017 9:02:17 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: EveningStar

This is funny. The given _primary_ benefit of the geothermal energy station NASA wants to build is to prevent a supervolcano from blowing a 25-mile crater on face of the earth. Usable energy is a convenient, secondary byproduct.

See what they’re doing there? They’re couching pet projects—even arguably straight-up beneficial ones—as operations to avert or avoid some world-wide calamity. A geo-thermal energy station project is ho-hum. Even Iceland had those. But a geo-thermal energy station that is _principally_ designed to save the world from a disaster? Well, you’d have to be a humanity-hating troglodyte to say no that!


18 posted on 08/20/2017 9:02:48 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: EveningStar

This sounds like something dreamed up by Hollywood for a cheap disaster movie.


19 posted on 08/20/2017 9:03:22 AM PDT by Truth29
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To: EveningStar
NASA's plan is to drill a hole into the side of the volcano and pump water through it.

I know what! Let's drill into a powerkeg of gunpowder and steal the nitrogen!


20 posted on 08/20/2017 9:04:48 AM PDT by Lazamataz (The "news" networks and papers are bitter, dangerous enemies of the American people.)
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