Supervolcanoes are especially large volcanoes, the eruption of which can provoke a change in the earth's climate. Currently, 20 such volcanoes are registered on Earth, and, according to NASA experts, the eruption of each of them poses a much greater threat to the planet than the fall of the astroid.
The Yellowstone Caldera, hiding under the Yellowstone National Park in the United States, is a huge crater 55 by 75 km in size, filled with hot magma. The caldera is a volcanic basin with steep walls and a more or less flat bottom, which is formed as a result of a strong eruption or collapse of the crater walls of an active volcano. At present, it is the Yellowstone volcano (far from the largest on the list) that is considered the most "ripe" for a potential eruption.
According to experts, the eruption of such a volcano would release hundreds of cubic kilometers of molten magma, which would burn out the entire landscape within a radius of 100 km and then turn Wyoming and the three surrounding states into an area covered with a meter layer of volcanic ash. But the destruction will not stop there. The dust and volcanic gases released by the eruption will cover the Sun with an impenetrable curtain and plunge the world into a "volcanic winter" that can last for decades and lead to the systematic extinction of a huge number of modern flora and fauna species. The last time the volcano erupted 640 thousand years ago.
Knowing that the threat is far from illusory and that a catastrophe can occur literally at any moment, NASA scientists have developed a plan to prevent a catastrophe. They suggest pumping heat out of the caldera, preventing it from heating up. The resource will not be wasted in this case: geothermal energy can be easily converted into electricity. All this will be done with the help of a stream of water, which will be fed through the well into the hot rock and, when heated, will return back at temperatures above 300 ° C in the form of hot steam and hot air. After the water has cooled, it can be pumped underground again - a resource-intensive and environmentally friendly cycle is obtained. This technique is already in use today, and therefore the technology looks very reliable, at least on paper.
You shouldn't expect a campaign launch in the coming years. However, the researchers hope that their work will draw attention to the problem of supervolcanoes around the world. “It's important to tame the elements before they kill 99% of all humanity,” Dr. Brian Wilcox, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a press release.