# Is there a way to prevent the Yellowstone Caldera from having a super eruption?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 3, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090 "2012-07-03T13:06:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/21 "2012-07-03T18:47:17Z")
> [@Quercus](#):
>
> As soon as you let us know
> a) how to keep the holes from plugging with solidified magma;
You might want to read up on lava tubes.
> [@](#):
>
> b) where exactly to put the holes so that they don’t weaken the overlying rock enough to allow a catastrophic release of pressure;
> c) how much lava to allow to exit the holes so as to reduce pressure to safe levels (you’ll need to tell us what a safe level is, by the way) and how fast we can let it out so as to avoid a catastrophic release of pressure;
> d) how to control the lava flow so as to avoid a catastrophic release of pressure, and how to stop it once we’ve gotten to a safe pressure level; and
> e) how draining the magma will affect the region’s geology, so we can prepare for those changes
>
> then we can start costing things out and deciding if there’s anywhere we can put the lava.
Well yes, these are all part and parcel of my question.
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/22 "2012-07-03T18:53:33Z")
While you’re at it, find a way to do a controlled release along the San Andreas Fault in California, so West Coasters don’t need to live in continual fear about the eventual “Big One.”
Really, though…If it ain’t the eventual eruption in Yellowstone, or the eventual earthquake in California, or the floods or the tornadoes or the hurricanes, or the asteroids/comets/meteors, or the nuclear weapon attacks from Iran/Korea, or the dirty bombs from terrorists, or the Killer Bees, or the flesh eating bacteria, or Ebola, or SARS, or…
Just live your life. Really.
~VOW
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### Author:  [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/23 "2012-07-03T19:11:10Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> You could try sacrificing virgins, if you can find any.
I seriously doubt it… 🙂
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/24 "2012-07-03T19:18:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Is there a way to prevent the Yellowstone Caldera from having a super eruption?
You haven’t visited Yellowstone, have you?
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/25 "2012-07-03T19:18:08Z")
Better figure this out soon if we’re gonna. This [map](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8284/7496235512_b6bb0442bb_o.jpg) suggests lava or ashfall would wipe out all or part of 23 states. Total population in this area = ± 72 million.
Tens of millions could not possibly get away and would be cooked alive like peas in a stew. For the rest - coast to coast, border to border and then some - unimaginable chaos, followed by years of nuclear winter and near-total starvation.
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### Author:  [@greenslime1951](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenslime1951)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/26 "2012-07-03T19:20:16Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#):
>
> Better figure this out soon if we’re gonna.
>
> This [map](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8284/7496235512_b6bb0442bb_o.jpg) suggests lava or ashfall would wipe out all or part of 23 states.
>
> Total population in this area ±72 million, tens of millions of whom would simply cook like onions in a stew.
Given that they’re almost all “red states,” I think it would be kind of ironic for them to be obliterated by God’s wrath.
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### Author:  [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/27 "2012-07-03T19:28:44Z")
> [@Duckster](#):
>
> You haven’t visited Yellowstone, have you?
Only a dozen times or so.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/28 "2012-07-03T19:31:46Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#):
>
> Given that they’re almost all “red states,” I think it would be kind of ironic for them to be obliterated by God’s wrath.
They’d be the lucky ones. It would be rapture by fire.
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/29 "2012-07-03T19:37:09Z")
More like purification by fire, from St Paul’s lesson in 1 Corinthians 3:12-13.
~VOW
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/30 "2012-07-03T21:44:27Z")
It is a question of whether over a period of time people could draw off enough thermal energy to stop an eruption. Assume no environmental laws, and then cover the area with thousands of geothermal generating plants tapping heat at record depths. Figure out how much thermal energy in yettawatts a super-eruption gives off, add that too how much is regularly rising to the surface, and then take the difference from the geo-thermal power generated over a period of decades, centuries, millenia, etc. Viola!
Course the free market solution is to let the invisible hand deal with it.
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/31 "2012-07-03T22:49:55Z")
The invisible hand says you should sell insurance for an event unlikely to happen in your lifetime and which would likely kill everyone who might ever try to collect. Thus you can realize near 100% profit on your efforts.
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### Author:  [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/32 "2012-07-04T00:42:53Z")
> [@greenslime1951](#):
>
> I think this is one of those questions where the proper answer would be, “Theoretically possible, but we lack anything even close to the engineering that would be necessary.”
I think it’s more along the line of “Theoretically possible, provided someone can come up with a theory that would make this possible.”
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### Author:  [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/33 "2012-07-04T01:40:28Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#):
>
> Better figure this out soon if we’re gonna. This [map](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8284/7496235512_b6bb0442bb_o.jpg) suggests lava or ashfall would wipe out all or part of 23 states. Total population in this area = ± 72 million.
Mormons, Texans, Idaho survivalists, flaky Californians… I think we should be encouraging the eruption. I see no downsides here. It’s going to be tough to find corn and other grains, but Milwaukee is still there so at least we can put those we find to good use making beer.
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### Author:  [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/34 "2012-07-04T02:12:59Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#):
>
> You could try sacrificing virgins, if you can find any.
I hear Reddit is an aggregator.
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### Author:  [@Perderabo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perderabo)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/35 "2012-07-04T02:22:05Z")
Why do you guys want to drill at it? :eek:
I say we bury it. Pile up a whole bunch of dirt on it so it can’t erupt. I admit, the weight of all of that dirt does make me a little bit nervous. But what the heck… I say we pile it on. Once we have an artificial mountain range sitting on top of it, it will never erupt.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/36 "2012-07-04T02:42:58Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#):
>
> Better figure this out soon if we’re gonna. This [map](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8284/7496235512_b6bb0442bb_o.jpg) suggests lava or ashfall would wipe out all or part of 23 states. Total population in this area = ± 72 million.
Thankfully, the damage seems to avoid Canada.
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### Author:  [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/37 "2012-07-04T02:52:47Z")
Looks like I’ll have just enough time to pack a few things and get out.
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### Author:  [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/38 "2012-07-04T03:14:49Z")
> [@Perderabo](#):
>
> Why do you guys want to drill at it? :eek:
>
> I say we bury it. Pile up a whole bunch of dirt on it so it can’t erupt. I admit, the weight of all of that dirt does make me a little bit nervous. But what the heck… I say we pile it on. Once we have an artificial mountain range sitting on top of it, it will never erupt.
How deep is the crust there? Can it be measured using the relative densities of the crust and magma, or are they similar at that depth? I’m sure I’ve seen measurements before of the crust, at various points on land and under the oceans. We could compare that in Yellowstone and all flee down to Paraguay when that it starts getting smaller.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/39 "2012-07-04T03:47:17Z")
> [@runner pat](#):
>
> Evacuate the continent.
> No way to stop it.
Pshaw. All you need is a basketball sized bomb made out of a gourd and coconut stuff.
And the Professor. He can make anything out of coconut stuff.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-way-to-prevent-the-yellowstone-caldera-from-having-a-super-eruption/627090/40 "2012-07-04T04:05:28Z")
> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> Pshaw. All you need is a basketball sized bomb made out of a gourd and coconut stuff.
>
> And the Professor. He can make anything out of coconut stuff.
And the Third Man. You do have to put the Lime in the coconut! 😃
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