4 ms·

The amount of energy released in such events boggles the mind. Shifting cubic-kilometers of rock, in this case several hundred or even thousands of cubic-kilom

The amount of energy released in such events boggles the mind. Shifting cubic-kilometers of rock, in this case several hundred or even thousands of cubic-kilometers, even a few inches requires more energy than all the worlds nukes many times over. We live atop an immense heat engine, every little vibration of which could power our entire civilization for years.

cm2187 3y ago
It's even harder than harvesting lightnings.
- sandworm101 3y ago
  I'm not sure about that. Drill some holes, pump some water, and geothermal power straight to the grid can be done. Harvesting lighting would require innumerable towers and even would require some trickery to get it hooked up to our power grids.
  - borgunit2 3y ago
    That’s not kinetic earthquake energy, though. I think in an apples-to-apples comparison, you would need to attach some kind of device to absorb the kinetic energy from the fault.
    - rzzzt 3y ago
      A building-sized piezo crystal?
      - lawlessone 3y ago
        Country sized.
  - squirtle24 3y ago
    Or one clock tower and a flux capacitor...
  - cm2187 3y ago
    ...and wait for the next major earthquake to even test it.
- barbariangrunge 3y ago
  A friend, back when he was a physics student, looked into harvesting lightning. He calculated that it wasn't economically viable: tons of wattage, but for such brief timespans, that it doesn't actually amount to that much on a comparative scale. The cost of building the collectors and transporting the electricity (from ocean platforms) was much higher than the cost of using other energy sources. Iirc. It wasn't exactly a serious investigation by a team of engineers, but I basically trust his conclusion. Maybe it will be more attractive in the future after we stop using hydrocarbons?
  - kulahan 3y ago
    I know embarrassingly little about electricity, but wouldn't this also likely require significant advances in semiconductors to even be feasible?
- manarth 3y ago
  For starters, the scythe keeps melting
IKantRead 3y ago
I've always found it fascinating that geophysicist and earlier advocate for Bayesian methods, Sir Harold Jeffreys, didn't believe in continental drift and plate tectonics because he felt there was no known source of energy on the Earth massive enough to explain this movement. [0] He remained an opponent until death (at which point continental drift was widely accepted) which is both a testament to the literally unbelievable energy behind seismic activity and the importance of updating your Bayesian priors as you gain new information. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Jeffreys#Opposition_to_continental_drift_and_plate_tectonics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Jeffreys#Opposition_to_...
- thehours 3y ago
  Actually the lesson I take away is the importance of not having a 0% (or 100%) prior, since it leaves no room to update with new information.
  - roenxi 3y ago
    It is also suspicious because it means someone has assigned a 0% prior to their being insane or in some sort of Plato's-cave scenario - which is hard to justify. The minimum possible Baysian prior is a base rate of "my senses are just not picking up reality and/or my memory is catastrophically compromised and/or I cannot process logic right now due to some reason" which while low is never going to be 0%. There are too many known ways for human brains to fall over. 0% priors are unjustifiable.
- throwup238 3y ago
  Another great illustration of Planck’s law: > Max Planck, surveying his own career in his Scientific Autobiography, sadly remarked that “a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.“ -The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
  - blackbear_ 3y ago
barbariangrunge 3y ago
I think we sort of have the tech to use geological energy, but I imagine the hardest part is not having your equipment destroyed all the time by quakes? You'd probably want to put your collectors deep underground where there's more activity
- sandworm101 3y ago
  At a theoretical level, it could be done with ropes. You don't need to wait for earthquakes. Setup two anchors on either side of a fault. String ropes between them. As the two plates slowly more, the stretching ropes can be tied to generators. Totally theoretical but, no new physics is required to extract energy from two slowly moving things.

cm2187 3y ago

It's even harder than harvesting lightnings.

sandworm101 3y ago
I'm not sure about that. Drill some holes, pump some water, and geothermal power straight to the grid can be done. Harvesting lighting would require innumerable towers and even would require some trickery to get it hooked up to our power grids.
- borgunit2 3y ago
  That’s not kinetic earthquake energy, though. I think in an apples-to-apples comparison, you would need to attach some kind of device to absorb the kinetic energy from the fault.
  - rzzzt 3y ago
    A building-sized piezo crystal?
    - lawlessone 3y ago
      Country sized.
- squirtle24 3y ago
  Or one clock tower and a flux capacitor...
- cm2187 3y ago
  ...and wait for the next major earthquake to even test it.
barbariangrunge 3y ago
A friend, back when he was a physics student, looked into harvesting lightning. He calculated that it wasn't economically viable: tons of wattage, but for such brief timespans, that it doesn't actually amount to that much on a comparative scale. The cost of building the collectors and transporting the electricity (from ocean platforms) was much higher than the cost of using other energy sources. Iirc. It wasn't exactly a serious investigation by a team of engineers, but I basically trust his conclusion. Maybe it will be more attractive in the future after we stop using hydrocarbons?
- kulahan 3y ago
  I know embarrassingly little about electricity, but wouldn't this also likely require significant advances in semiconductors to even be feasible?
manarth 3y ago
For starters, the scythe keeps melting

IKantRead 3y ago

I've always found it fascinating that geophysicist and earlier advocate for Bayesian methods, Sir Harold Jeffreys, didn't believe in continental drift and plate tectonics because he felt there was no known source of energy on the Earth massive enough to explain this movement. [0] He remained an opponent until death (at which point continental drift was widely accepted) which is both a testament to the literally unbelievable energy behind seismic activity and the importance of updating your Bayesian priors as you gain new information. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Jeffreys#Opposition_to_continental_drift_and_plate_tectonics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Jeffreys#Opposition_to_...

thehours 3y ago
Actually the lesson I take away is the importance of not having a 0% (or 100%) prior, since it leaves no room to update with new information.
- roenxi 3y ago
  It is also suspicious because it means someone has assigned a 0% prior to their being insane or in some sort of Plato's-cave scenario - which is hard to justify. The minimum possible Baysian prior is a base rate of "my senses are just not picking up reality and/or my memory is catastrophically compromised and/or I cannot process logic right now due to some reason" which while low is never going to be 0%. There are too many known ways for human brains to fall over. 0% priors are unjustifiable.
throwup238 3y ago
Another great illustration of Planck’s law: > Max Planck, surveying his own career in his Scientific Autobiography, sadly remarked that “a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.“ -The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- blackbear_ 3y ago

barbariangrunge 3y ago

I think we sort of have the tech to use geological energy, but I imagine the hardest part is not having your equipment destroyed all the time by quakes? You'd probably want to put your collectors deep underground where there's more activity

sandworm101 3y ago
At a theoretical level, it could be done with ropes. You don't need to wait for earthquakes. Setup two anchors on either side of a fault. String ropes between them. As the two plates slowly more, the stretching ropes can be tied to generators. Totally theoretical but, no new physics is required to extract energy from two slowly moving things.