Are you encouraged that you can help with the research by visiting the park and feeling for the ground to shake? I really hope they are not relying to heavily on my reports, but I will tell everyone if I see an ash cloud from here in Eastern Iowa.
I'd say that's another reason I'm glad I wormed out of a trip to Coralville this month, but if you could see the eruption from there, I'd be downwind anyway.
I know the tree-huggers would claim it is a crime, but one day we either will, or will wish we had, exploit that particular caldera with an aggressive geothermal energy campaign. I think it could be done innocuously, with a number of fairly small facilities spread out over the park.
Anybody have any hard data on the amount of energy it could produce? Or what it would take to tap that energy sufficently deeply to turn the bloody thing off? Not too many people understand just how bad an eruption Yellowstone is capable of. Mt. Saint Helens would be a burp by comparison. Even Krakatoa would be a burp by comparison.
Exploit yellowstone's thermal potential to prevent it from blowing (if that could actually be achieved), what an idea! Think the politicians could sell this.
Earthquakes in yellowstone don't predict an eruption there. The magma chamber would have to grow first. However, earthquakes in yellowstone have been very good predictors of eruptions and earthquakes in the US pacific rim.
What is the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
I'm not saying Yellowstone is about to blow again, predicted by this latest swarm, but that it is still active as all get-out, with magma moving under it, and on a geological timescale it is more or less due to blow.
This thing is a beast, capable of some of the biggest single-point eruptions this planet has ever seen. It is also not new. It is the result of a hot-spot something like the Hawaiian islands, and has left old calderas strung out across the continent. It is not going away anytime soon.
I don't know how much heat one would have to draw from it in order to quell the activity, but I would expect the number to be phenomenal. Long Valley in California is another place with both potential danger and energy potential, where we might make a profit and avert a cataclysm simultaneously.
Dr. Bussard regarded geothermal as being under-appreciated. So do I.
Tom Ligon wrote:I'm not saying Yellowstone is about to blow again, predicted by this latest swarm, but that it is still active as all get-out, with magma moving under it, and on a geological timescale it is more or less due to blow.
This thing is a beast, capable of some of the biggest single-point eruptions this planet has ever seen. It is also not new. It is the result of a hot-spot something like the Hawaiian islands, and has left old calderas strung out across the continent. It is not going away anytime soon.
I don't know how much heat one would have to draw from it in order to quell the activity, but I would expect the number to be phenomenal. Long Valley in California is another place with both potential danger and energy potential, where we might make a profit and avert a cataclysm simultaneously.
Dr. Bussard regarded geothermal as being under-appreciated. So do I.
If you are ever in Calif. go up to the Napa Valley for a day of drinking at the wineries and then head up to a town (Geysereville?) The Geysers Resort Hotel.
pfrit wrote:Earthquakes in yellowstone don't predict an eruption there. The magma chamber would have to grow first. However, earthquakes in yellowstone have been very good predictors of eruptions and earthquakes in the US pacific rim.
The magma chamber has been growing for 600,000 years. There is recent evidence of recent growth. This thing goes off about every 600,000 years. Beware, the time is nigh!
pfrit wrote:Earthquakes in yellowstone don't predict an eruption there. The magma chamber would have to grow first. However, earthquakes in yellowstone have been very good predictors of eruptions and earthquakes in the US pacific rim.
The magma chamber has been growing for 600,000 years. There is recent evidence of recent growth. This thing goes off about every 600,000 years. Beware, the time is nigh!
Recent history has shown that earthquakes in yellowstone presage major earth quakes in washington and alaska. The magma chamber would need to greatly expand for an eruption. I have heard estimates of 10-30 years of warning before that happened. I have also heard that it may have started growing and we have 5-20 years before a first possible eruption. Certainly everyone agrees that it will not just go boom. OTOH, Ranier might and this could set it off.
What is the difference between ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
