This paper critically discusses an article from national geographic titled “Yellowstone Supervolcano Could Be an Energy Source. But should it? “by Shannon Hall. A secondary article “Yellowstone Supervolcano May Rumble to Life Faster Than Thought” by Victoria Jaggard is also used to support the some of the facts mentioned in Shannon’s article.
Shannon Hall is an award-winning Freelance Science Journalist. She is an active and regular contributor to various established news publishers that include Scientific American, The New York Times, Nature, National Geographic, Quanta, Discover, Sky & Telescope among others. In addition, she is a graduate of Whitman College and has two degrees to her name; one in physics astronomy and one in philosophy. Her counterpart, Victoria Jaggard, is the senior editor for Science and Innovation at National Geographic.
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Summary of the Primary Source article
The article delves into the intrigues of the Yellowstone national park. The national park is located in the north west of Wyoming State and is home to 10,000 hydrothermal features such as steaming vents and geysers that are fueled by the supervolcano underneath it. The article argues that the supervolcano is not likely to erupt soon and this is supported by Victoria Jaggard’s article. However, in the event of an eruption ever occurring, it would be catastrophic and would likely cause an extinction event. Nasa scientists, in an attempt to prevent this from ever occurring, suggest that the site be used for geothermal electricity production which essentially is killing two birds with one stone; reducing the probability of an extinction event ever occurring and also finding clean source of energy. However, there are caveats to this ever occurring. The park, for one, is protected from any geothermal plant developments by the 1970 Geothermal Steam Act.
Many geothermal experts as well as dwellers argue that development of geothermal plants would have a great toll on the park as it will kill the iconic geysers and hot springs on site. Moreover, even if the geothermal is done in a more preservative way, the site would be hard to miss given the pristine nature of the park. The article cites areas such as Wairakei Basin in New Zealand where geothermal development was a travesty. The article also cites countries such as Iceland which have been relatively successful in harnessing geothermal power while at the same time doing very little to harm to the environment. Moreover, the article, brings us closer to home, by mentioning northern California which is touted to have the largest geothermal development in the world and produces 900 megawatts of electricity enough to power San Francisco all year round. The article, in essence, provides counter-arguments with one side advocating for geothermal development in the area while the other strongly disagreeing with even the thought of it.
Critique of Primary source article
The article presents to us two compelling sides that have rather solid arguments to support their own opinions. A supervolcano is considered an existential threat and if it ever occurs, would possibly trigger an extinction event. According United States Geological Survey (USGS), a supervolcano is any volcanic center that has explosively erupted at least 1000 cubic kilometers of fresh volcanic material in sudden violent manner often producing a huge depression crater called a caldera. “Geological evidence shows abundant evidence for rare but extremely large caldera-forming eruptions of siliceous magmas that dwarf all historical volcanic episodes in erupted volume and environmental impact” (Malfait et al., (2014).
The article gives a flimsy excuse of preservation of nature as a strong reason to prevent any geological development in the Yellowstone national park. Moreover, the 1970 act specifically mentions the park as a protected site. While in many cases, preservation of nature is the best route to take so as to maintain certain rare sites, the prevention of an impending supervolcano eruption should take center stage in this case. Harnessing of geothermal power, admittedly, has been seen to have serious environmental implications but this is nothing compared to deaths of millions of people in the US.
NASA proposition of building 10 kilometers of holes above the magma and circulating water to cool down the molten rock is a viable option. Not only does it serve to reduce the potential for an eruption, it also provides an avenue for geothermal energy generation (Stout, 2002). The article, informative as it is, should have expounded further on the potential effects of a supervolcano ever erupting. Moreover, considering Iceland case, the geothermal power developments could actually be implemented without destroying the environment.
In a world where careless industrial growth has resulted to pollution due to adoption of coal plants as base power plants, a lot of discourse needs to be done. In the field of geothermal energy for instance, old barriers that prevent exploration of this technology need to be removed. Case and point, the 1970 geothermal act. This article also speaks to life the fact that geothermal energy could be a viable career path for my life because a lot more still needs to be done in this field and being conversant with geology would give me an upper hand.
References
Hall, S. (2018). Yellowstone Supervolcano Could Be an Energy Source. But should it? Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/08/news-yellowstone-supervolcano-geothermal-energy-debate-iceland-hawaii/
Jaggard, V. (2017). Yellowstone Supervolcano May Rumble to Life Faster Than Thought. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/yellowstone-supervolcano-erupt-faster-thought-science/
Malfait, W. J., Seifert, R., Petitgirard, S., Perrillat, J. P., Mezouar, M., Ota, T., ... & Sanchez-Valle, C. (2014). Supervolcano eruptions driven by melt buoyancy in large silicic magma chambers. Nature Geoscience , 7 (2), 122.
Clark, R. N., Swayze, G. A., King, T. V., Gallagher, A. J., & Calvin, W. M. (1993). The US Geological Survey, digital spectral reflectance library: Version 1: 0.2 to 3.0 microns.
Stout, R. G., & AL ‐ NIEMI, T. S. (2002). Heat ‐ tolerant flowering plants of active geothermal areas in Yellowstone National Park. Annals of Botany , 90 (2), 259-267.
