Yellowstone pressure release concept

[Dominatus]

Rather than explain what I'm sure everyone here knows in depth, regarding the long-overdue Yellowstone super volcanic eruption, I will post my idea directly. What if we could somehow release the building pressure, possibly by drilling a hole with a pressure-release valve? I have done no research whatsoever on this concept and am by no means proficient in geology or engineering. All I as is if this is a feasible idea to prevent the potentially cataclysmic event that might happen? If anyone has any better ideas (besides "don't worry about it, it won't happen in our lifetimes") I would love to hear them.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Dominatus

[AngelLestat]

Not sure if is just a pressure issue, is a hot spot.

I remember seeing a documentary which they analize the possibility to reduce the danger placing several geothermal plants (hundreds) over the place.

(If you will do all the drilling just to leave escape the heat and pressure, then better to take the avantage of that)

But even with hundreds of these plants, the effect would be negligible.

[Elthy]

Funny, i just thought about a new thread to discuss how to pervent volcanic eruptions.

Im not sure if you realy want to drill i a magma chamber thats under pressure, with a bit of bad luck it could also trigger the eruption. Maybe cooling it is a better solution but i have no idea how to do this...

[-Velocity-]

The eruption is not "long-overdue". There is a vague pattern based on a statistically insufficient number of samples (of a process that is known not to be very regular) that suggests that an eruption may happen in the next few hundred thousand years. There is no reason to believe an eruption is imminent or even overdue.

I donno about your idea, I'm not a volcanologist. I think that volcanic blasts can be caused actually by the release of pressure- this causes gases in the magma to come out of solution, which actually causes a run-away blast when this process builds up some momentum. You could possibly cause an eruption doing this. Perhaps if you drilled into the magma chamber when the pressure was low, you'd get a relatively "gentle" release of magma, like during fissure eruptions? But the pressure in the Yellowstone hotspot's magma chamber may already be too high. However, I think the other reason this wouldn't work is because you'd have a hard time drilling a hole deep enough and keeping it open, but that's just practicalities

Edited March 31, 2015 by |Velocity|

[Dominatus]

Long-overdue was what I had gotten from a documentary several years ago

[-Velocity-]

Long-overdue was what I had gotten from a documentary several years ago

Never put any stock into what you see on TV "science" shows. Much of what they spew is baloney or trumped-up and sensationalist. TV shows are made for entertainment, so they will overplay any possible danger, since people are attracted to knowing about dangers (it's a survival trait). What you should do is, if you see something on TV, independently investigate it on the internet. Wikipedia is not exactly the most reliable source, but for science articles, they usually have to cite peer-reviewed journal papers, so that makes them fairly reliable, and vastly better than any TV show, for sure. If you have access to them, actual scientific papers themselves are your best source, but it can take a while sifting through them. If you're not an expert in a field, you can have a tough time understanding what they say too, but you can still get the gist of the paper's conclusion.

It can be hard to get access to journal papers though, there needs to be a better way than exists right now to access them. What's wrong about it is so much of the research is funded by tax dollars, but then the research gets published in a journal that you need like a $200 a year subscription fee to get access to (and buying access to individual papers can cost like $20+). The only way to read these papers- that I know of, at least- is if you're affiliated with an institution (like a university or large company) that pays all the relevant fees. Does anyone know if there's some kind of library subscription you can buy to get access to most science and engineering journals?

[Kryten]

You can usually access articles by putting the title and filetype: pdf into Google.

[Dominatus]

Lol I know I saw it in maybe eighth grade science when the teacher was out sick lol I was just thinking about it and hadn't done any research yet.

[Vanamonde]

Given the scale of the thing, you'd have to drain an awful lot of magma, and then the problem is, where do you send it? What do you do with a quantity of glowing-hot semi-fluid the size of a Great Lake? Also, I have no actual knowledge of the geology, but I wonder if drilling into the thing might create a weak spot that sets off the very thing you're trying to forestall. I don't think it would be feasible.

[Bill Phil]

Funny, i just thought about a new thread to discuss how to pervent volcanic eruptions.

Im not sure if you realy want to drill i a magma chamber thats under pressure, with a bit of bad luck it could also trigger the eruption. Maybe cooling it is a better solution but i have no idea how to do this...

You don't want to. They have to happen. Releasing carbon compounds into the atmosphere, along with a bunch of other processes...

However, preventing a big one is desirable...

[B787_300]

Any way of trying to resolve the pressure and other issues would involve a lot of money and could set off the thing so it would not be advisable to do it with current technologies

[LordFerret]

The Yellowstone caldera's dome has been rising (gradually, on and off)... an indication of a possible pending eruption, as so stated by USGS... they have been monitoring it for years. There is speculation there is also a 'big one' earthquake due for southern California. If there is a 'big one', it is possible it could release the pressure under Yellowstone... the break-off of the plate (a subduction zone) might very well release the pressure beneath Yellowstone. In a global aspect, having the 'big one' in CA would be less damaging than Yellowstone blowing it's top.