Rigging a Volcano

From: Mike1 (humphreys-remedial-education-project_at_usfamily.net)
Date: 07/02/04 

Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 16:57:34 -0500

Re: Solving Global Warming and this cool summer of 2004
"Bob Harrington" <rch.NOS-PAM@blarg.net> wrote:

>Somehow, you would have to find a way to divert the underground magma
>away from the volcano to somewhere it wouldn't cause problems, or figure
>out how to release all the dissolved gasses that create the eruptive
>pressures within the magma.

*If* it were actually possible, the thing to do would be create a
"pressure-release" value (since the worst eruptions are those in which
magmas contain so much dissolved gases that they fizz like champagne
upon pressure-release at the surface).

For instance, supposing the Yellowstone supervolcano were priming up to
a continent-wide catastrophe (with global implications) again. What to
do? Well let's see.....

First you'd need to construct gargantuan pipes and valves out of a
substance which could handle years (decades?) of high temperatures *and*
pressue (titanium/silica-fiber composite?). You'd then need to drill
down (lining the hole with the pipe, with periodic values added) to the
magma chamber. The "surface" of the rig should be well away from the
chamber, in an area of durable continental bedrock, and angle in at
depth (so if a magma plume sills out from the bore-hole, it can't
fracture it's way easily to the surface through old caldera fissures in
a "blow-out".

The objective is to convert a 600,000yr cycle mega-eruption into a
controlled, lateral surface venting over decades or even centuries, to
reduce pressue to a stable level. Of course a fat hunk of eastern
Wyoming would have to be devoted to "ash storage". 

-- 
Reply to mike1@@@usfamily.net sans two @@, or your reply won't reach me.
Drug smugglers and gun-runners are heroes of American capitalism.
  -- Jeffrey Quick

Relevant Pages

  • Rigging a Volcano
    ... Solving Global Warming and this cool summer of 2004 ... >pressures within the magma. ... upon pressure-release at the surface). ... magma chamber. ...
    (sci.chem)
  • Rigging a Volcano
    ... Solving Global Warming and this cool summer of 2004 ... >pressures within the magma. ... upon pressure-release at the surface). ... magma chamber. ...
    (sci.geo.meteorology)
  • Re: Rigging a Volcano
    ... Solving Global Warming and this cool summer of 2004 ... >>pressures within the magma. ...
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  • Re: Rigging a Volcano
    ... Solving Global Warming and this cool summer of 2004 ... >>pressures within the magma. ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
  • Re: Rigging a Volcano
    ... Solving Global Warming and this cool summer of 2004 ... >>pressures within the magma. ...
    (sci.geo.meteorology)