NASA's Plan To Stop A Supervolcano from Destroying The Earth's Climate (news.com.au)

Long-time walterbyrd shared a new article about NASA's contingency plan for "vast quantities of searing magma and clouds of fumes" erupting from a Wyoming supervolcano and slowly "burying much of the United States under a thick coat of ash and lava...enough to change the climate of the world for several centuries." NASA believes the Yellowstone supervolcano is a greater threat to life on Earth than any asteroid. So it's come up with a plan to defuse its explosive potential... NASA scientists propose, a 10km [6.2 miles] deep hole into the hydrothermal water below and to the sides of the magma chamber. These fluids, which form Yellowstone's famous heat pools and geysers, already drain some 60-70 per cent of the heat from the magma chamber below. NASA proposes that, in an emergency, this enormous body of heated water can be injected with cooler water, extracting yet more heat. This could prevent the super volcano's magma from reaching the temperature at which it would erupt.
A member of NASA's Advisory Council on Planetary Defense told the BBC he'd concluded "the super volcano threat is substantially greater than the asteroid or comet threat."

Comments

Re:Somebody has been watching too many movies

[h33t l4x0r]

this drilling proposal has no chance of triggering a premature eruption

That's what she said.

Re:Somebody has been watching too many movies

[PolygamousRanchKid]

If they are going to drill, they could make the project self funding by bleeding out steam for electricity generation.

Why bother with the electricity generation step . . . ? Surely, Elon Musk can build steam-powered cars for us. You can tank up your car with fresh Yellowstone Steam at one of a system of pipeline nationwide distribution stations: Fresh, hot steam. On tap! Always!

Plus, when the steam-powered car extracts ("burns") the energy in the steam . . . only water comes out! It will solve global warming and droughts, as well. A system of IoT autonomous AI controlled pilots in the steam-powered cars with automatically alter the routes of cars to drive through drought affected areas, bringing much needed water there via the car exhaust pipes!

And, along with the Yellowstone Steam, we can also . . .

Re: Somebody has been watching too many movies

[I'm New Around Here]

You misunderstand the strategic significance of this asset. We can station nukes around and in it. If anyone doesn't do what we say, we threaten to blow up the whole world...

First we need some kind of plausible lunatic to be oit leader to make the threat credible. Preferably an old one with a short life expectancy anyway, maybe with a tenuous grasp on reality, power, or both...

Damn. If only Hillary had won last year, we'd have just the lunatic you're looking for.