Yellowstone Supervolcano

[Anonymous No.5121916]

So, /sci/,
I heard a few times that the Yellowstone Park volcano is both large enough to change the world if it blows, and long overdue for an eruption.
So I have a question about it: if someone drilled into it and put explosives in, would that vent take out enough pressure from inside it to keep it safe for awhile longer, or just bring about a thousand years of darkness early?

I don't think I've ever heard someone else suggest that, so I'm going to assume what I'm saying is ridiculous, but if it is, why is it?

[Anonymous No.5121963]

Bump.

[Anonymous No.5122006]

>>5121916

>long overdue for an eruption

Despite what you have heard on the fear mongering/pawn stars channel there is no evidence that an eruption of yellow stone is imminent. The way they say they predict these things on those shows is that "well, it erupted every X years, and it's been X years since, so obviously it's going to erupt." Wrong. This is not a linear event. The earths mantle and crust is a very dynamic place, that's why earthquakes aren't predictable. The only way we would know if an eruption is eminent is yellow stone started to become very active, but as old faithful will tell you, it's been pretty much the same for at least a 100 years. There is no evidence there will be an eruption of yellow stone anytime soon.

[Anonymous No.5122023]

>>5122006
Ahh, okay.
Still, though, I thought a 'supervolcano countermeasure' thread would be fun or interesting.

[Anonymous No.5122026]

>>5122023

I don't even think we have regular volcano "countermeasures" let alone supervolcano ones.

[Anonymous No.5122028]

>>5122023

Magma builds up pressure until the pressure of the magma is greater than the crust above it and hold, so just making the crust weaker would cause an eruption early, and on the scale of yellowstone it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference, just instead of waiting for it to erupt, you caused it to erupt.

[Anonymous No.5122045]

Can't we just drill a giant straw into the magma and have the other out stick into space to release the pressure without killing earth?

I mean, at some point we're gonna have to do something, right?

[Anonymous No.5122052]

>>5122045

>why don't we just drop a volcano of ice to counter the volcano of fire

[Anonymous No.5122056]

>>5121916
>and long overdue for an eruption
Nope. These things don't have regular predictable cycles. We got geologists monitoring it and it seems stable for now.

[Anonymous No.5122066]

>>5122028

Speaking theoretically, if we could somehow lessen the pressure by creating an alternative way on which the built-up magma could pass on a lslower rate (maybe something like 1 or 2 in the volcanic explosivity index), we might stem the eruption of the volcano for an x amount of time, in which x is dependent on the amount of pressure relieved.

[Anonymous No.5122282]

>>5121916
>is both large enough to change the world if it blows, and long overdue for an eruption.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. Volcanoes do not operate on a schedule. They erupt when they damn well please. As best as geologists can determine, Yellowstone isn't in a place to erupt right now.
2. While Yellowstone is famous for its massive caldera-forming eruptions, there's a much greater chance of activity at the volcano just being modest lava flows or dome growth within the caldera.
3. Beyond the fact that the only explosives we have capable of doing such a thing would be nuclear (yeah, set off an H-Bomb in our oldest national park), relieving pressure on a volcano can be a very bad idea, as it can trigger a collapse eruption.

[Anonymous No.5122295]

I say we send a team into space to capture a large meteor, then we smash it into yellowstone.... We completely obliterate the volcano, no chance of it erupting.

[Anonymous No.5122313]

>>5122295

The next hit SyFy Channel Original Movie!

[Anonymous No.5122326]

>>5122313
The year is 2172, and a series of star quakes in our sun have bombarded the moon with enough gravity rays to destabilize the orbit. The lunar cycle is erratic, and the tidal forces have agitated the earths core. Now volcanoes all over the world are threatening to spew forth. Only team Space-hammer, a grizzled group of ex-asteroid miners and dare devil pilots, along with one straight-laced african-spacemerican physicist named Cornelius, can guide a series of asteroids down to cap the volcanoes and save our precious world.

[Anonymous No.5122353]

>>5122326
>tfw when people would actually watch this


>Implying I'm not taking it to Hollywood right now

[Anonymous No.5122361]

>>5122353
Too late, I've already got a team working on principle photography in Belarus. Casper Van Dien is already signed on as a the ex-foreman of a space mine that exploded due to corrupt business practices costing the lives of three of his ex wives.

[Anonymous No.5122372]

You cannot relieve the pressure with a "straw," letting a little magma out. From what I have read, when it goes, it while be a rhyolite eruption. The stuff is the consistency of play dough, but under extreme heat and pressure, loaded with water. When it blows, the pyroclastic flows will be supersonic, hundreds of degrees hot, will burn and bury everything for hundreds of miles, ejecting tens of cubic miles of material into the atmosphere, creating a volcanic winter that might last a hundred years. All life will be fucked to a certain extent.

Given a choice between America's oldest National Park and all life on the planet, and seeing as we probably have some time, I'd propose a world-wide effort to bury the caldera with some kind of cap. It might take hundreds or thousands of years, but I'd figure a way to add a mile or two thick layer of reinforced concrete over the entire caldera, perhaps preventing the next eruption. Fuck Old Faithful. Bury the sucker. I've been there, a few colorful features, but otherwise boring and full of tourists. Been there, done that.

[Anonymous No.5122396]

>>5122361
>costing the lives of three of his ex wives
Where did my sides go?

[Anonymous No.5122404]

Pic is the stationary hot spot, the crust moves over it (plate tectonics), numbers are how many million years ago each eruption happened. The Snake River Plain in Idaho is the result of successive eruptions. I live near here, drive through this often, observe thin layers of basalt and massive deposits of hardened rhyolite. I'm not a geologist, but read the book "Roadside Geology of Idaho" by Alt and Hyndman, a couple of geologists.

[Anonymous No.5122433]

Speaking of volcanoes, when is mt fuji exploding?

I read weeks ago that it was on the verge of exploding but still nothing new