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Magma Reservoir Under Yellowstone Is Much Bigger Than Previously Thought
schwit1 writes "The reservoir of molten rock underneath Yellowstone National Park in the United States is at least two and a half times larger than previously thought. Despite this, the scientists who came up with this latest estimate say that the highest risk in the iconic park is not a volcanic eruption but a huge earthquake. Jamie Farrell, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah, mapped the underlying magma reservoir by analyzing data from more than 4,500 earthquakes. Seismic waves travel more slowly through molten rock than through solid rock, and seismometers can detect those changes. The images show that the reservoir resembles a 4,000-cubic-kilometer underground sponge, with 6–8% of it filled with molten rock. It underlies most of the Yellowstone caldera and extends a little beyond it to the northeast."
time for a big old geothermal plant?
where's my *DOOM*??? we can't even get a 1 mile asteroid to come closer than 2.4 times the earth-moon distance in the forseeable future. (1997 XF11 in 2028)
Obviously what is happening is that the Shredder and Krang have been creating magma in their magma-factory inside the Technodrome. They are obviously planning something sinister, so we need to send some turtles, perhaps turtles trained in ninjutsu, down there to set things straight.
Monstar L
The last Caldera in that region of the country morphed into The SCO Group.
I've played a lot of Minecraft, and what we need to do is dig down to the Magma layer so we can get some diamonds and obsidian. This we can then use to make a portal to the Nether, which we will then enter to be safe from the perilous scourge of the pigmen.
Everybody get to punching.
This doesn't give the government an excuse to sell it to Disney or anything, does it?
I'd tap that!
Life is not for the lazy.
Start the reactor.
Oh wait, wrong planet. My bad.
For it will come !!
Eventually !!
But you will be long dead !!
And it is for that that you must fear time !!
Time, flowing like a river
Time, beckoning me
Who knows when we shall meet again, if ever
But time keeps flowing like a river into the sea !!
Goodbye my love, maybe for forever
Goodbye my love, the tide waits for me
Who knows when we shall meet again, if ever
But time keeps flowing like a river
On and on
To the sea, to the sea till it's gone forever
Gone forever, gone forevermore
Goodbye my friend, maybe for forever
Goodbye my friend, the stars wait for me
Who knows where we shall meet again, if ever
But time keeps flowing like a river
On and on
To the sea, to the sea till it's gone forever
Gone forever, gone forevermore, forevermore, forevermore
Now it's heating up Yellowstone!
As long as no idiot decides that frakking and oil drilling near that massive doomsday weapon (think "array of supervolcanoes" and "gigatons of dust") is a good idea.
Heck, there is actually a movie about that, too bad I cannot recall the name. It was quite good.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2013.03.022
"Repeating earthquakes in the Yellowstone volcanic field: Implications for rupture dynamics, ground deformation, and migration in earthquake swarms"
Frédérick Massin, Jamie Farrell, Robert B. Smith
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research
Volume 257, 1 May 2013, Pages 159–173
the highest risk in the iconic park is not a volcanic eruption but a huge earthquake
... that will cause the megaeruption.
Maybe it just grew sort of unnoticed?
Puts the caldera well into Montana and Idaho*
[*] - http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs100-03/
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That's like finding out Kim Kardashian's ass is much bigger than originally thought.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
We have finally found Dr. Evil's lair.
There are very few "perfect" energy sources in the world, and geothermal has its pecticular share of issues.
The brines associated with geothermal have all kinds of chemicals ike sulfates and metals. They need to be disposed of. This was the chief complaint in not allowing geothermal in Hawaii.
If you create your own fluid circulation system, i.e. inject water to heat up, then run a dynamo, then you risk induced-quakes. These have been associatred with numerous injection geothermal systems in California and Phillipines. And non-geothermal water disposed has cause quaks in several Colorado sites, Switerlandm, Oklahoma, near fracking areas, and so on.
Who cares if an earthquake strikes Yellowstone? A volcanic eruption would have a much wider impact.
A magma reservoir for ants?! It has to be at least... 3 times bigger than this!
Everyone will get some time off from work.
What's the matter? Annoyed that you didn't qualify for grad school?
And why is that necessarily a bad thing? The way I look at it if tapping geothermal causes quakes, then quakes were going to happen anyway - eventually. And the longer between quakes, the worse they are. That seems obvious - more time for energy to build up, release more energy at once, worse quake.
I rather trade an earthquake that's a 2 or 3 on the scale every year than wait for the 100 year one that hits with an 11.5!