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

Somebody has been watching too many movies

[reboot246]

NASA's proposed solution may very well trigger the damned thing.

Re:Somebody has been watching too many movies

[ShanghaiBill]

NASA's proposed solution may very well trigger the damned thing.

That could only happen if they broke through a pressure barrier. The geology of the Yellowstone magma dome is well understood, and this drilling proposal has no chance of triggering a premature eruption.

If they are going to drill, they could make the project self funding by bleeding out steam for electricity generation. Yellowstone has enough heat to generate 100% of America's power needs for centuries.

"Nuclear Winter"

[sconeu]

<SARCASM>
Let it blow, and have the nuclear winter effect cancel out global warming!
</SARCASM>

Wrong

[Spy Handler]

Yellowstone supervolcano is a greater threat to life on Earth than any asteroid

Any asteroid? Regardless of size? How about Ceres, 500+ miles in diameter? I'll bet that wipes out all humans and every animal species larger than a rat.

Yellowstone on the other hand has erupted before, most recently 640,000 years ago, and at least some of the primitive hunter-gathering humans were able to survive it.

Re:Wrong

[turbidostato]

"Any asteroid? Regardless of size? How about Ceres, 500+ miles in diameter? I'll bet that wipes out all humans and every animal species larger than a rat."

Yeah, what about Ceres? How much of a threat of impact it supposes?

You know, we have quite a grasp on newtonian mechanics. When did you say the 500+ miles of Ceres are going to be anywhere near to Earth?

Jupiter is even bigger than Ceres, you know... how great a threat of impact do you think Jupiter poses?

Right. I think you are starting to understand now.

NASA's Mission?

[mkoenecke]

I am a little confused here (actually, have been for some time). By the way, this is totally apart from the argument of whether this is a good idea or not - I express no opinion there. But I was under the impression that NASA stood for the "National Aeronautics and Space Administration." So I find all this research and involvement in climate issues and trying to defuse volcanoes rather puzzling: how exactly does that help with aeronautics and space? How does that fit in with NASA's purpose? (Sure, if the Earth is destroyed you won't see any space exploration. You won't see any taxation, either, but unless I'm missing something I have not heard reports of the IRS's anti-pollution initiatives.)

What about all the other supervolcanoes?

[Drishmung]

As can be seen from this list, Yellowstone is only one of many, and has been relatively quiet, unlike Tambora and Taupo which have both gone up comparatively recently.