Yellowstone - a possible solution

io9.com...

Most of the real damage comes from ejecta that's airborne. But it's not fiery death from above. Instead, most damage would come from "cold ash" and pumice borne on the wind. Lowenstern and his colleagues consider it "disastrous" when enough ash rains down that it creates a layer of 10 or more centimeters on the ground — and that would happen in a radius of about 500 miles or so. This ash might reach so far that you'd see a fine dusting of it on your car in New York. Air traffic would be grounded, of course, as we saw after the 2010 eruption in Iceland. But mostly this ash would pollute farms in the midwest, as well as the Mississippi River. In a sense, it would be like an industrial accident, clogging waterways and agricultural areas with toxic sludge. The worst outcome of this event would be the destruction of our food supplies and waterways.

from the map ill post later im in the primary ash zone JUST out of the killzone in one of those states apparently no one likes to visit

cdn2.bigcommerce.com... said map

volcanoes.usgs.gov... ash dispersion map for where science thinks it would end up

The topic of Yellowstone supereruptions (ones producing greater than one thousand cubic kilometers of volcanic debris) generates much interest, but also occasional confusion. New computer models can help clarify the reality of eruption impacts, and provide insight on past eruptions. In August 2014, USGS scientists Larry Mastin and Jacob Lowenstern, and National Science Foundation researcher Alexa Van Eaton published research on where volcanic ash would fall if a Yellowstone supereruption were to occur today (with present-day weather patterns); the research models an eruption similar to the caldera- forming event that occurred 640,000 years ago. Yellowstone is an obvious target for ash distribution studies, as it provides an opportunity to understand very large eruptions that generate umbrella clouds, which spread radially in the atmosphere (see last image below). The distribution of deposits from ancient Yellowstone eruptions can be compared with the output from the computer models. For additional information, read the entire article published in the scientific journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. The following FAQ adds background and context to this research study.

www.cbc.ca... this link explaines the zones and their differences between each other,from "you gonna die" to" life is gonna suck" basically and talks about some of the effects to airports im in zone four on that list 80cm of ash estimate

mos of this goes way over my head as i was never science smart but most of the articles do a decent job of explaining it

a reply to: PheonixReborn

The problem with the soda bottle experiment is that the vent is reinforced stronger than the rest of the vessel and has threads that retain the cap. Not so with earth- it's as if the cap to your soda bottle were so brittle that it simply broke loose of the sides when you touch it.

We would have to reinforce the earth around and over the caldera with something that can withstand a blast that would disintegrate a mountain into an airborne cloud. So unless you've got the shield generators from the USS Enterprise laying around to be loaned out....

And by the way, I was kicked out of science class for the soda bottle experiment, and I know exactly the proper soda level, tilt angle, and range for an accurate but not painful head shot.

a reply to: eriktheawful

I said drills - plural. I never once suggested it would be one hole.

Remember, recent discovery has shown the caldera chamber is actually fed from another larger chamber below it. The immediate chamber is like a half full gas tank. The pressure builds when the lower chamber starts to fill the upper chamber building pressure in it. Mostly the magma in the upper chamber is partially solidified material.

Popping the cork slowly will unfortunatly will not alter the ability of the caldera from blowing.

originally posted by: PheonixReborn

originally posted by: paradoxious

originally posted by: PheonixReborn
a reply to: The Vagabond

Again... try the soda bottle experiment. See what happens if you just twist the bottle-top very, very slightly so only a controlled amount of gas escapes.

There are hydrothermal vents all over Yellowstone which are releasing pressure right now. You don't see them blowing the lid off the caldera.

Controlled release of the building pressure just might work.

I've done that, and the pressure blew the cap out of my hand.

Then you're not doing it right.

Well in this you would only get one chance. And its not the resulting explosion that causes the most problems but those pesky gases that you want to release that kill way more than lava or rocks which of course do their own damage but small amounts of gas kill the canary, large amounts of gas kills everything else.

Understand what you are saying but release pressure in one spot its going to build up in another and another and eventually go off in a spectacular way. A volcano is not the proverbial soda pop bottle and the gases would continue to fill any void it could and go boom sooner or later. Best bet is to live life and not worry about it as if its time to go its time to go. Maybe someday when we learn more we can prevent them but I still think its a fail safe for Mother Nature to fix something else thats wrong and maybe it just that too many people are trampling across her back.