Yellowstone volcano: Could NASA drill into Yellowstone to prevent a future eruption?

The USGS said: “We frequently get asked about this topic, and we point out the difficulty in cooling and depressurising magma systems without unintended negative consequences, including making an eruption more likely.

“Nevertheless, drilling and injecting water is often proposed as a means of preventing future eruptions.

“For example, a 2015 document by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory describes techniques to quench large magma systems such as the one that underlies Yellowstone.

“In particular, the report describes the potential for cooling the more than 10,000 cubic kilometre magma system by intensive extraction of geothermal heat for thousands of years.”