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generate jobs, electricity, fresh water, & save the earth

An idea to generate jobs, electricity, fresh water, & save the earth.
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Construct 6 dozen Chunnel sized tunnels from the west coast to the super volcano in Yellowstone National Park. Where enormous heat exchangers and steam collectors will have to be built. The sea water from the Pacific would be super-heated, produce steam to turn electricity generating turbines. The steam would be collected, cooled, condensed and used to fill regional reservoirs throughout the Mid-West, South-West, & South. The magma in the area would be cooled, less fossil fuels would be used, less greenhouse gases created, we would have cleaner air, agriculture would have a steady supply of fresh water. All the construction, operation & maintenance jobs could not be outsourced.
RMC1964, Mar 19 2014

Flatness of Earth - Proof WKTE http://www.gutenber...-h.htm#CHAPTER_XVII
Go to the very end of the chapter given, and you'll find that in the old Transvaal Republic the flatness of the Earth had already been discovered. (In the chapter that follows, Capt Slocum visits the said Republic, and is corrected by the President when he makes a grave geographical error.) [skoomphemph, Mar 21 2014]

Dig up the Earths Core Dig_20up_20the_20Earth_27s_20core
While you are digging you might as well make a side tunnel. [bungston, Apr 02 2014]

[link]






       ([RMC1964] - you put your user name in the 'Idea name' box, so I've set the idea name to something more sensible. Anyway, welcome to the Halfbakery!)
hippo, Mar 19 2014
  

       I do like the idea of utilizing the Yellowstone super volcano as the ultimate geothermal power source. I'd think the magma cooling issue could be circumvented somehow. Great first post.
RayfordSteele, Mar 19 2014
  

       Impossibly ambitious, prohibitively expensive, requires technology that may not yet exist, and potentially puts hundreds of thousands of people at risk of pyroclastic immolation. An excellent halfbake!
Alterother, Mar 19 2014
  

       //Impossibly ambitious, prohibitively expensive, requires technology that may not yet exist, and potentially puts hundreds of thousands of people at risk of pyroclastic immolation.//   

       Yea, but there could be a downside as well. [+]
doctorremulac3, Mar 19 2014
  

       //And since it can't flow as easily, pressure builds. Let's watch//   

       If you dig deep enough that you're getting at the base of the hot spot, you limit any possible eruption to magma already above that point, so pressure shouldn't build significantly if you start there.
MechE, Mar 19 2014
  

       Yeah I'm curious as to what might happen if we were to lance this blister in some pseudo-controlled fashion.
RayfordSteele, Mar 19 2014
  

       I don't think we could do anything to cause it to super-explode.   

       There could be a (rather large) IKEA flatpack version for convenient assembly at lava fields.
FlyingToaster, Mar 19 2014
  

       Could you have picked a volcano farther inland? Plus Yellowstone is at 7000 feet. The Aleutians have volcanoes in close proximity to sea water. Those folks need jobs too. Make your steam there and pipe it to So Cal. You can use the right of ways that oil pipeline uses.
bungston, Mar 19 2014
  

       The problem is that the Aleutians are fault line volcanoes, and even if it were possible, locking together crustal plates is a bad idea. Since it isn't possible, any action which attempts to do so will just slightly increase the severity of the next earthquake.   

       Hotspot volcanoes, on the other hand, represent single large punctures in the middle of a plate. These might be patchable.
MechE, Mar 19 2014
  

       Wouldn't water pipelines be less prohibitively expensive?   

       Your brine could be sent back to a pay-beach resort where electricity is generated by osmotic pressure ...er ... somehow ... (partially offsetting the cost of the return pipes). Probably warm water swimming would generate more revenue than the electricity.
skoomphemph, Mar 19 2014
  

       [bigsleep], remember that temperature and pressure are related, and the goal here would reduce the underground temperature at Yellowstone.   

       The thing I'm seeing as a major problem is the running of saltwater through the system. Corrodes turbines, it does.
Vernon, Mar 19 2014
  

       But they're steam turbines, aren't they ?   

       The TDS of the feedwater will be very high, but you might be able to harvest and sell the salt.   

       Hawaii or Stromboli would be good candidates for the pilot installation.   

       Plus, what [Alterother] said.
8th of 7, Mar 19 2014
  

       Which is why I said you had to start much deeper. It looks like you shouldn't have to go much past the depth of the Kola Superdeep Borehole to get below the major silicate magma reservoir.
MechE, Mar 19 2014
  

       I don't see salt as a problem - volcanoes aren't small - preboil/recondense the water.
FlyingToaster, Mar 19 2014
  

       yeah, let's think big ! [+]
piluso, Mar 19 2014
  

       //I've set the idea name to something more sensible//   

       And when I saw the idea title I thought [beanangel] was back…
ytk, Mar 19 2014
  

       cool. But, why go inland? Drill down for the same effect.   

       Yellowstone is >10,000 km from the ocean.   

       You'd only need to go ~10km straight down anywhere to get to the mantle.   

       But your idea is the most bold, half-baked geothermal project, so [+]!
sophocles, Mar 19 2014
  

       //There could be a (rather large) IKEA flatpack version for   

       So, as the pyroclastic flow heads your way, your going "It says here, insert flap A in slot B"....
not_morrison_rm, Mar 19 2014
  

       So the chunnels would then actually start at the bottom of the continental shelf (I'm guessing about 2km deep?). From there they would slope *down* to Yellowstone? ... Wow ...   

       Seeing as the supervolcano is going to blow up one day, anyway, maybe containment efforts would be best directed at agglomerating all the fine particles. As part of the project, set up giant geothermally powered firehoses that spatter droplets at the dust cloud. (I'm just assuming it would be more-impossible to stop the explosion, using puny constructions like arrays of 20 chunnels per compas point than it would be to ameliorate its after-effects.)
skoomphemph, Mar 20 2014
  

       Wherever you start the tunnel from, it slopes downwards away from you because of the curvature of the Earth.   

       The implication being that this idea would not work if the Earth was in fact a hollow shell and we lived on the inside.
pocmloc, Mar 20 2014
  

       //because of the curvature of the Earth. //   

       You mean round the edge ?   

       // the Earth was in fact a hollow shell //   

       Good thing it's a flat disc, then.
8th of 7, Mar 20 2014
  

       Its obvious that a disc that big would droop, so stop trying to be a know-it-all.
pocmloc, Mar 20 2014
  

       Nobody's told you about the four elephants, then? Four elephants, stand on the back of a giant sea turtle, mate, Great A'Tuin they call him, and these four elephants, see, they holds the world on their backs. Very tidy system you see, very efficient, solid foundations and the like. No droopage at all. Well, very little droopage. Hardly as you'd notice.   

       Anyhow, now you know about the four elephants. Do try to keep up, there's a good chap.
Alterother, Mar 20 2014
  

       2km start depth (relative to sea level at start point).   

       Then it's not enough to just go "straight across" to 2km deep on the line between somewhere on the volcano and the center of the Earth; you have to go (relatively, again) down to 10km deep. Perhaps at Yellowstone the crust is still thinner, but it's still down some. ... Or "down" some, if it please the Honourable member.   

       Can one not make a flat Earth appromimation at these distances? Or am I grossly underestimating how far inland the giant volcano is? I'm pretty sure that if we were talking about boats departing from sea level in the opposite direction (rhumb line or great circle makes little difference), and heading out to sea, one of them would be well and truly sunken if sent on this opposite course.   

       Either way, one alternative brine disposal method would be to make a Dead Sea alternative in Death Valley. (The theme park would just have to keep moving out the way as the shoreline grew.) It might unlock some interesting plate movements, and get these over and done with.
skoomphemph, Mar 20 2014
  

       Better not be any droopage or the ocean would spill over.
RayfordSteele, Mar 20 2014
  

       Well, there is _some_ droopage, yeah, but let's be fair, you'll get droopage on any of these big turtle-and-elephant jobs. Hardly a better design on market, mind you, aeons ahead of those hollow spheres with like the secret world on the inside and no-one on the outside knows, but at the end you find out what hey, big surprise, it was the other way round the whole time. Never see me set foot on one of them, no sir. It's a disc for me or nothing, can't be beat it for a nickel and let's talk about robust! But yeah, you sort of expect some droopage on a disc. Some are better than others, see? All depends on the builders is what it boils down to, really. Who was yours done by?
Alterother, Mar 20 2014
  

       /a disc that big would droop/ That is why it must spin. Centrifugal force! It is like a big raw pizza crust.
bungston, Mar 20 2014
  

       Nah, octiron framing: no droop.
FlyingToaster, Mar 20 2014
  

       Path adjustment for those not aware of the flatness of the Earth (which is plain for the eye to see -- <link> --):   

       Commence chunneling in the Ocean at a distance of 6376.1 km from the "centre" of the Earth. Continously diminish the radius per radian by a function of your choice whilst orbiting within the mantle (on a path of your choice .eg via Canada), until reaching the same radius (in the other sense) as Yellowstone is at, but at a distance of 6368.521103 km from the "centre".   

       Careful not to capsize the turtle.
skoomphemph, Mar 21 2014
  

       Living inside the hollow sphere would make a mess of the focal point from air traffic trying to get across any major diameters. That's why we prefer ours to be more of a hollow pseudo-ellipsoid. Granted, we sacrifice experiencing zero-gravity at that focal point, but then again, air traffic there is much too dense to enjoy floating in the center of the world anyway.
RayfordSteele, Mar 21 2014
  

       Thank you all very much for your suggestions, input, and humor. Who wants to be in charge of the Kickstarter fund for this project?
RMC1964, Apr 01 2014
  

       I'm sorry, you were expecting real help? That isn't the sort of drink that's served in this place.
Alterother, Apr 01 2014
  

       If "in charge of" means "dispensing liberal advice, admonitions and cautionary tales to the person doing the work" then I'm your man!
bungston, Apr 02 2014
  

       I'll supply the troubleshooting and good-natured mockery, but as far as actual expenditure of effort goes I already have too much on my plate.
Alterother, Apr 02 2014
  

       I could troubleshoot too, but I am a terrible shot. I might just make the trouble mad.
bungston, Apr 02 2014
  

       If you can find a big stick, you might have a go at troublebludgeoning. It's a good transition sport for beginners.
Alterother, Apr 02 2014
  
      
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