Can enormous heat deep in the earth be harnessed to provide energy for us on the surface? A promising report from a geothermal borehole project that accidentally struck magma – the same fiery, molten rock that spews from volcanoes – suggests it could.HT: naked capitalism
The Icelandic Deep Drilling Project, IDDP, has been drilling shafts up to 5km deep in an attempt to harness the heat in the volcanic bedrock far below the surface of Iceland.
But in 2009 their borehole at Krafla, northeast Iceland, reached only 2,100m deep before unexpectedly striking a pocket of magma intruding into the Earth’s upper crust from below, at searing temperatures of 900-1000°C.
This borehole, IDDP-1, was the first in a series of wells drilled by the IDDP in Iceland looking for usable geothermal resources. The special report in this month’s Geothermics journal details the engineering feats and scientific results that came from the decision not to the plug the hole with concrete, as in a previous case in Hawaii in 2007, but instead attempt to harness the incredible geothermal heat....MORE
Previously on the Hot Rocks channel:
"...two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot ”Mr. Gore was not invited to join venture capitalists Kleiner, Perkins for his scientific expertise.
-Al Gore talking to Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14kNtnJgXXM
Ormat taps Volcano to Generate Electricity (ORA)
Guess who's writing off their subscription to "Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research"?
[this will end as badly as the time you tried to write off the "Journal of Leisure Research" -ed]
