h a l f b a k e r yYeah, I wish it made more sense too.
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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.
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]
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([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!) |
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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. |
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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! |
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//Impossibly ambitious, prohibitively expensive,
requires technology that may not yet exist, and
potentially puts hundreds of thousands of people at
risk of pyroclastic immolation.// |
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Yea, but there could be a downside as well. [+] |
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//And since it can't flow as easily, pressure builds.
Let's watch// |
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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. |
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Yeah I'm curious as to what might happen if we were
to lance this blister in some pseudo-controlled
fashion. |
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I don't think we could do anything to cause it to super-explode. |
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There could be a (rather large) IKEA flatpack version for convenient assembly at lava fields. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Hotspot volcanoes, on the other hand, represent
single large punctures in the middle of a plate.
These might be patchable. |
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Wouldn't water pipelines be less prohibitively expensive? |
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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. |
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[bigsleep], remember that temperature and pressure
are related, and the goal here would reduce the
underground temperature at Yellowstone. |
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The thing I'm seeing as a major problem is the
running of saltwater through the system. Corrodes
turbines, it does. |
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But they're steam turbines, aren't they ? |
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The TDS of the feedwater will be very high, but you might be able to
harvest and sell the salt. |
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Hawaii or Stromboli would be good candidates for the pilot
installation. |
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Plus, what [Alterother] said. |
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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. |
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I don't see salt as a problem - volcanoes aren't small - preboil/recondense the water. |
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yeah, let's think big ! [+] |
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//I've set the idea name to something more sensible// |
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And when I saw the idea title I thought [beanangel]
was back
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cool. But, why go inland? Drill down for the same
effect. |
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Yellowstone is >10,000 km from the ocean. |
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You'd only need to go ~10km straight down anywhere
to get to the mantle. |
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But your idea is the most bold, half-baked
geothermal project, so [+]! |
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//There could be a (rather large) IKEA flatpack version for |
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So, as the pyroclastic flow heads your way, your going "It says here, insert flap A in slot B".... |
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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 ... |
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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.) |
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Wherever you start the tunnel from, it slopes downwards away from you because of the curvature of the Earth. |
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The implication being that this idea would not work if the Earth was in fact a hollow shell and we lived on the inside. |
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//because of the curvature of the Earth. // |
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You mean round the edge ? |
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// the Earth was in fact a hollow shell // |
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Good thing it's a flat disc, then. |
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Its obvious that a disc that big would droop, so stop trying to be a know-it-all. |
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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. |
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Anyhow, now you know about the four elephants. Do try to
keep up, there's a good chap. |
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2km start depth (relative to sea level at start point). |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Better not be any droopage or the ocean would spill over. |
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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? |
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/a disc that big would droop/
That is why it must spin. Centrifugal force! It is like a big raw pizza crust. |
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Nah, octiron framing: no droop. |
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Path adjustment for those not aware of the flatness of the Earth (which is plain for the eye to see -- <link> --): |
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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". |
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Careful not to capsize the turtle. |
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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. |
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Thank you all very much for your suggestions, input, and humor. Who wants to be in charge of the Kickstarter fund for this project? |
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I'm sorry, you were expecting real help? That isn't the sort
of drink that's served in this place. |
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If "in charge of" means "dispensing liberal advice, admonitions and cautionary tales to the person doing the work" then I'm your man! |
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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. |
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I could troubleshoot too, but I am a terrible shot. I might just make the trouble mad. |
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If you can find a big stick, you might have a go at
troublebludgeoning. It's a good transition sport for
beginners. |
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