Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
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Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
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Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#2"Regardless of the specifics of the details, in the abstract, such a scheme is in some sense, possible. How should we consider it?
On the one hand, building a huge geothermal power station at Yellowstone would generate a large amount of (potentially cheap) electric power while simultaneously reducing a catastrophic risk. "
"On the other hand, in many ways Yellowstone is a particularly bad place to try to build such a plant. The harsh, corrosive conditions in and around the magma chamber would make drilling the wells especially difficult, and its location in the middle of nowhere would require the construction of enormous transmission lines"
"In any case, the debate is likely to remain academic for the foreseeable future. Using Yellowstone for geothermal power was made illegal by the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970"
So the answer is likely yes, in theory. But there are lots of other places, where it makes more sense to build geothermal plants. (for energy, but also security, there are lots of other potential super vulcanos that are not as activly monitored like Yellowstone is)
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#3As the article mentioned, the Yellowstone risk is more future than current, and is being extensively monitored, and "A much bigger risk is likely large eruptions from volcanoes that we aren’t tracking and have no data for.".
One that is being tracked, and showing a present threat is the Vesuvius complex (which did in Pompeii), and is showing markedly increased activity [0]. I'd be more interested in proposals that might mitigate that.
Or more generally, studies finding out how late such a project could start and still be successful, i.e., able to extract sufficient heat from the system before it erupts, thus preventing the eruption.
[0] https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/volcanos/europes-mo...
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#4[dead]
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#5It’s a shame this was written earlier this year. In Iceland there’s an ongoing magma intrusion event near (and under) the town of Grindavik. There also happens to be a geothermal power plant not far from the town.
The progression of this magma intrusion, particularly beneath the power plant itself, seems like it should provide a valuable case study to test the idea presented by this article. If there ends up being an eruption under that power plant we might learn something about the advantages and potential pitfalls of this proposal.
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#6As the article mentioned, the Yellowstone risk is more future than current, and is being extensively monitored, and "A much bigger risk is likely large eruptions from volcanoes that we aren’t tracking and have no data for.". One that is being tracked, and showing a present threat is the Vesuvius complex (which did in Pompeii), and is showing markedly increased activity [0]. I'd be more interested in proposals that mi…
It'd be so cool if someone threw a ridiculous amount of money at doing this. The science seems at least plausible and there's some hypothetical benefits, but mostly it'd be a really fucking cool engineering project. Probably completely impractical, but the kind of massive "just to say we can" project I think we really need
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#7What could possibly go wrong?
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#8Could we trigger an eruption by extensive drilling in/around the magma chamber?
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#9It’s a shame this was written earlier this year. In Iceland there’s an ongoing magma intrusion event near (and under) the town of Grindavik. There also happens to be a geothermal power plant not far from the town. The progression of this magma intrusion, particularly beneath the power plant itself, seems like it should provide a valuable case study to test the idea presented by this article. If there ends up being an…
I suspect the SCALE required to ease the pressures would be absurd.
Warhammer 40k sort of absurd.
Having said that, It should be considered to take advantages of clean energy.
Re: Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a geothermal power plant?
#10Research like this really gives me cause for optimism about our ability to find creative solutions to the biggest issues facing humanity. It can’t lull us into complacency that “someone will figure it out”, but if we can mitigate volcanic eruptions while generating gigawatts of energy (albeit hypothetical), I hope we can also find ways to mitigate the effects of climate change.