Scientists are working on ways to prevent supervolcanoes from erupting causing climate catastrophes for the world in a .5 billion project.
The US space agency (NASA) intends to drill deep into the heart of one of the world’s most dangerous supervolcanoes located under Yellowstone National Park in the US, Independent on August 19 reported. They will use high-pressure water jets to cool the volcano, release heat from the magma chamber and prevent the volcano from erupting.
NASA’s plan is to drill about 10km deep in Yellowstone and pump water through it. The cost of the project is 4.5 billion USD. In the future, a geothermal plant can be built to harness energy.
Morning Glory Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. (Photo: Independent).
However, drilling through supervolcanoes carries many potential dangers, according to scientist Brian Wilcox of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology.
“If you drill into the top of the magma chamber and try to cool it from there, it’s risky. The dome of the magma chamber can become more brittle and more prone to cracking. Toxic gases in the magma at the top of the chamber can be dangerous. can be liberated,” the BBC quoted Wilcox as saying.
According to Wilcox, the threat from supervolcanoes is much greater than that of asteroids or comets. A supervolcanic eruption could have long-term effects on the planet, including worldwide starvation and the release of large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. The United Nations estimates global food stocks to last only 74 days.
The biggest threat is the ash blown away by the wind. “People who live upwind from where the volcano erupts need attention,” said Larry Mastin, a volcanologist at the US Geological Survey (USGS). Large eruptions can create an umbrella-shaped cloud that causes ash to cover more than half of the continent.
According to the USGS, the Yellowstone supervolcano will not erupt for centuries to come. However, Yellowstone’s eruption cycle is 600,000 years old and the last time this supervolcano erupted was 640,000 years ago.