Quote:
Originally Posted by gmeteer
Why can't science and technology relieve the pressure under Yellowstone like a kid squeezes a giant zit? Has anyone looked into that solution? Shhhpluuuuck! All relieved, maybe a scar is all.
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It's not like lancing a boil. That caldera is 40 or so miles across and the magma chamber underneath it is way bigger. There's a vent (forget the correct term for it) going from the big one on the bottom to the smaller one on top. The chain of craters from previous eruptions is pretty much a straight line, but each crater is many miles apart. The caldera moves with the N. American plate, but the magma chamber is below the mantle. So we can drill, but would only be touching the smaller one. That mountain is moving a few inches up each year due to rising pressure underneath it. It will blow. We are about as important as ants in this whole thing.