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Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

constructionphysics.substack.com

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Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#2
"If heat could be bled off of the magma chambers, cooling and solidifying them, not only would that stop the volcano from erupting..."

Where does the confidence to make this claim come from?

I can imagine that the consequence of this might actually just be strengthening the "barrier" the magma has to erupt through, and when it finally builds up enough energy to do that, it'll be stronger in proportion to how strong the newly cooled down barrier had become? Unless the suggestion is that we could effectively bleed out ALL the heat from that system? Seems a bit unlikely imo lol

Still, geothermal sounds really cool and we should do more of it.

Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#3

"If heat could be bled off of the magma chambers, cooling and solidifying them, not only would that stop the volcano from erupting..." Where does the confidence to make this claim come from? I can imagine that the consequence of this might actually just be strengthening the "barrier" the magma has to erupt through, and when it finally builds up enough energy to do that, it'll be stronger in proportion to how strong t…

Betteridge's law of headlines aside. I feel like the scale of the topic is almost completely human inconceivable when trying to tie it to a realistic engineering task. It seems like a fun what-if, but when you do that you are using making giant hand waving excuses, and not anything that looks like a factual claim.

Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#4

"If heat could be bled off of the magma chambers, cooling and solidifying them, not only would that stop the volcano from erupting..." Where does the confidence to make this claim come from? I can imagine that the consequence of this might actually just be strengthening the "barrier" the magma has to erupt through, and when it finally builds up enough energy to do that, it'll be stronger in proportion to how strong t…

Yeah not to mention the construction of the plant itself! I wouldn’t want to be operating the drill that punctures the magma chambers!

I’m optimistic. If we spent less time engineering society and more time engineering the earth, I think we’d all be a lot happier.

Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#5

"If heat could be bled off of the magma chambers, cooling and solidifying them, not only would that stop the volcano from erupting..." Where does the confidence to make this claim come from? I can imagine that the consequence of this might actually just be strengthening the "barrier" the magma has to erupt through, and when it finally builds up enough energy to do that, it'll be stronger in proportion to how strong t…

Betteridge's law of headlines aside. I feel like the scale of the topic is almost completely human inconceivable when trying to tie it to a realistic engineering task. It seems like a fun what-if, but when you do that you are using making giant hand waving excuses, and not anything that looks like a factual claim.

Agreed. Geothermal energy can be cheap and awesome, but there are reasons why it's only practical in certain parts of the world.

Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#6

"If heat could be bled off of the magma chambers, cooling and solidifying them, not only would that stop the volcano from erupting..." Where does the confidence to make this claim come from? I can imagine that the consequence of this might actually just be strengthening the "barrier" the magma has to erupt through, and when it finally builds up enough energy to do that, it'll be stronger in proportion to how strong t…

Betteridge's law of headlines aside. I feel like the scale of the topic is almost completely human inconceivable when trying to tie it to a realistic engineering task. It seems like a fun what-if, but when you do that you are using making giant hand waving excuses, and not anything that looks like a factual claim.

[deleted]

Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#8

This definitely feels like an "The answer to all titles posed as questions is No" example.

It is exactly that.

Betteridge’s Law of Headlines.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headli...

Edit: To all the down voters, please cite where in the article it proves the answer is _yes_. Because it looks like a lot of _ifs_ and no real data or science to back it up.

Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#9
Imagine if a asteroid impact worked like a shape charge, leaving behind a dent in the deeper layers, that becomes the base for a future volcano. Something like the Chicxulub Event would leave two "dents" one at the impact site and one at the opposite site, were the pressure wave would meet into a spike.

To test that pet-theory yellowstone would need to be on the antipodde of a huge impact crater from million years ago, roughly around https://eng.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande-Terre.

Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?

#10
This is the seed of a science fiction novel that takes place in a far future dystopia where humanities remnants scavenge in the ruins, and who's brightest members are kidnapped by a mysterious group that turns out to be an AI run organization executing the Yellowstone mega project on a 50kyr timeline. And so on.
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