Earth becomes a rogue planet - how long can Iceland hold out?

Inspired by this question and my comment on one of the answers.

If the earth were flung out of the solar system, it would rapidly become far too cold for any unprotected life to survive on the surface. Any remaining humans would have to live in pressurized and heated domes. However, if the earth was ejected from the solar system on a shallow enough trajectory, it's possible that governments or groups could put together such domes before the temperature dropped too severely. However, such domes need to be kept heated, oxygen needs to be provided, and food needs to be grown for long-term survival. Therefore, I nominate Iceland as the location most likely to support a long-term surviving colony. The reason for this is Iceland's reliance on geothermal power, just about the only power source likely to remain viable over the long-term as the earth drifts away from the sun. According to Wikipedia, Iceland used 79.7PJ of geothermal power in 2004, which, if my math is right, gives them about 2.5GW. (If anyone manages to find more recent numbers, please comment and I'll add them).

Given these facts, how likely is it that Iceland could maintain a colony of this type indefinitely, and how large is the maximum colony size that could be maintained?

posted almost 6 years ago

Gryphon‭

16 reputation 17 1 2 0