• Environmental

  Is Yellowstone now a source of power or a natural park to protect for everyone

  Posted by Unknown Member on 5 October 2020 at 1:25 pm

  Yellowstone has over 10,000 hydrothermal features, driven by the super volcano that lies under the service of this natural park, so should we look at tapping into this source of power or protect the park for future generations.

  Scientists have proposed for years that by drilling a series of wells around the park and pumping cold water down the wells, they would be in theory able to cool the magma chamber beneath the park and therefore preventing a super eruption.

  The result of pumping the water and tapping into the vast geothermal source would be to generate electricity to power parts of the U.S.

  However Yellowstone is protected from commercial development under the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970, which prohibits geothermal plants being built in Yellowstone and other geothermal parks around the country.

  The U.S scientists should look to places around the world and particularly to New Zealand which have experience in this energy source, to see the devastating impact that geothermal plants have on the source and the area.

  The Wairakei basin was developed into a commercial geothermal energy source that has been destroyed by the process of extracting boiling water then injected back into the ground.

  Using this same process New Zealand has destroyed virtually three quarters of their natural geysers and geothermal activity around the country.

  There are successful geothermal operations in other parts of the world and indeed inside the U.S, but why would anyone consider destroying a natural system that has existed for millions of years and without knowing what it would effects it would have on the super volcano laying under Yellowstone national park.

  it wasn’t so long back that scientists were predicting an eruption from Yellowstone that would blanket the entire U.S in debris, plunging the planet into a volcanic winter.

  Is the Yellowstone geothermal power really worth the risk?

  Unknown Member replied 3 years, 7 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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