Volcanic Ash Technology

I've been pondering on this ever since i heard about the yellowstone caldera on coast to coast am within the last few weeks. In a time where nature's fury seems to be mounting an offensive why do "some" us humans just sit around saying,"well i hope it doesn't happen." The unexpected can and will happen in due time. We cannot afford to sit around anymore hoping that big natural catastrophic events won't happen. We need viable options to deal with these events so that we are the utmost prepared for anything.

Here's a barebones idea that i have to deal with the volcanic ash that is released from a volcano:

Develop some sort of vacuum system to literally suck the ash from the atmosphere. A long tube connected to some sort of aircraft so that the aircraft isn't in the ash cloud but the end of the tube is obviously. At the other end of the tube is some sort of balloon type container(i haven't been able to find the temperature of an ash cloud so it may need to be cooled possibly before it hits the container).

I've been wondering also if graphene would be suitable for the tube/container for this type of setup.

Any input on this good or bad is appreciated. Thank you.

I think you may be slightly underestimating the immensity of natural disasters.
For example heres part of a description of the Tambora, Sumbawa, Volcano in Java (1815, April 5)

As many as 12,000 people perished in the initial blast, while more than 82,000 lives were taken subsequent famine and disease. The volcano also emitted about 170 billion tons of ash and debris in the atmosphere in a cloud so dense that it darkened islands 300 miles away for three days

So sucking it up with a plane would be a little like trying to soak up a Tsunami with a bath sponge.

Although they did stop that BP oil spill with a metal top hat so.... I guess theres hope

link

Would need a pretty big tube, and project like that would be very costly. To prevent it, maybe build something that could divert the magma chamber else where, say in the ocean. If HAARP can induce earthquakes, I'm sure they can take steps to prevent an eruption from taking place.

Originally posted by davespanners
I think you may be slightly underestimating the immensity of natural disasters.
For example heres part of a description of the Tambora, Sumbawa, Volcano in Java (1815, April 5)

As many as 12,000 people perished in the initial blast, while more than 82,000 lives were taken subsequent famine and disease. The volcano also emitted about 170 billion tons of ash and debris in the atmosphere in a cloud so dense that it darkened islands 300 miles away for three days

So sucking it up with a plane would be a little like trying to soak up a Tsunami with a bath sponge.

Although they did stop that BP oil spill with a metal top hat so.... I guess theres hope

link

edit on 26-1-2012 by davespanners because: (no reason given)

The plane/helicopter type aircraft would only need to get the tube into position and hold it in the cloud. Again this is a barebones idea. Im not really sure how much a 2 mile or so tube of graphene would weight. I guess i need to get an idea of how much graphene weighs and calculate the surface area of different diameter cyclinder tubes to figure out their masses to see if only one aircraft is needed or figure out ideas on how to distribute weight via extra aircraft or some other means.

I wish i knew some more characteristics of volcanic ash and the gases involved(pertaining to temperature and if temperature is the factor that causes the gas to rise along with the ash). If the gas/ash would still float for a while once sucked up in the balloon type container then all you would need to do is have several balloons floating around but then they might land on people. Or a ground based containment system could be devised if you could cool the gases down to an acceptable temperature.

Originally posted by Shrukin89
Would need a pretty big tube, and project like that would be very costly. To prevent it, maybe build something that could divert the magma chamber else where, say in the ocean. If HAARP can induce earthquakes, I'm sure they can take steps to prevent an eruption from taking place.

edit on 26-1-2012 by Shrukin89 because: (no reason given)

Good idea. I've thought about this also. something like a pressure release valve for magma. I haven't really researched whether or not the US knows exactly where these magma chambers are located. I look into it to see if i can find anything.

reply to post by mojo2012


If it was as simple as that do you not think they would have already said that would be done, lets hope the bag doesn't burst you would need one hell of a brush and dust pan for a few billion tons!

reply to post by mojo2012


I like your thinking, even if it is flawed!

Even if you could get the plane up there, it would need to be mega city sized to make even the slightest indent on the ash cloud.

However, nothing gets done without a bit of lateral thinking so S & F anyway