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"Buy gold and land because they're not making any more."

Obviously those people have never been to Hawai`i, or Iceland.

where do the remaining 990 000 dollars go?

http://www.geographia.com/bahamas/bsnpin01.htm

KFG

Obviously, that's not how it will be done. In the currently operating hydroelectric plants in Iceland, such as at Svartsengi, they constantly pump water into fissures in the ancient lava flow (5000 to 8000 year old around Reykjavik if I remember my high-school geology) to be extracted as steam. The steam is used to drive turbines for electricity and for heat-exchange to heat fresh water (it is quite salty/gritty/full of sulphur at this point) which then is fed to near-by settlements for heating.

Icelandic apartments will have cold water, hot water and electricity coming to them, all dirt cheap. No gas.

Finally, the water is dumped into a large lake of industrial waste^W^Wbeautiful blue water and that's where we^H^Hthey hoard the tourists.

Finally, for some extra geek, we have a description of the computer systems at Svartsengi powerplant.

I just visited Iceland a couple months back, and I have to say that it made me wonder why geothemal isn't more popular.

My favorite iceland moment: I went to the blue lagoon, which is a spa next to a geothermal powerplant. Basically you've got this cloudy blue mineral water in a huge black volcanic rock basin, at one end you've got the spa, where you get in, and the water is probably just over 80 degrees. Then on the other end of the basin you've got geothermal runoff water boiling in. You can get as close as you like to the inlet, but when you get within 30 feet or so you're nearly getting cooked. There's also some silica mud and waterfalls along the sides. The view is dramatic with the industrial steamstacks on one end, a classy spa structure on the other, and the natural volcanic pool in the middle. Highly recommended.

But the point is: you're bathing in powerplant runoff. And it's supposed to be good for you. Now that's pretty amazing: I want that kind of powerplant in my back yard. And looking up in Wikipedia, the largest geothermal installation in the world is actually in California. And it doesn't put out some wussy windmill sized power, we're talking 2000 Megawatts -- that's nuclear plant territory, if I understand correctly.

Reykjavik is reputedly the least polluted city in Europe, and most of the heating and power is provided by geothermal -- they just run hot pipes through the houses. Iceland has some pretty unique geographic properties that lend itself well to the process, but it's hard to believe that this can't be harnessed elsewhere to good effect. I mean, I understand the startup costs are very high. And I understand the technology needs work. But we're talking about a nearly limitless source of energy that is clean, safe, and politically sound. It seems like a pretty wise investment.

Cheers.

It seems you are correct.
Just when you've gotten over your childhood fear of the ocean...THIS comes up! This planet will never cease to amaze me.

Cheers,

Morel

Grenada gained independence in 1974, 7 years before reagan took office.

The land reclaimation projects in Holland are engineering masterpieces.
I lived about 15m below sea level and used to look up at ships travelling
down the nearest canal. You've got to see the Zuiderzee
and the Rhine delta projects.

The Oresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden is amazing,
completed a couple of years ago it's 16km (~ 9 miles) long.

Back in 1999 I took the train from Amsterdam to Beijing. I went thru Berlin,
Minsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, along the trans-Sib to Irkutsk
then south to Mongolia and into China. It took three weeks in all with a
couple of days stops along the way. The Russian train stays on Moscow
time the whole way thru. I had train lag getting off! It's the Trans
Mongolian rather than the Trans Siberian and it's more interesting
since you get to go thru Mongolia and end up in China.

In China I went to the Great Wall of China, altho' it is impressive I wasn't
blown away by it. I think I'd heard too much about it already. I only
saw one section, if you followed it for thousands of kilometers then you'd
respect the builders a hell of a lot more....

The Cathederal in Cologne is pretty impressive.
The attention to detail is second to none, even in places no one would
normally look.

and a plug for home, the 5000 year old Megalithic Passage Tomb at
Newgrange in Ireland is awe inspiring. On the morning of
the shortest day of the year, a shaft of light shines thru an opening
over the entrance and fills the chamber inside. It's humbling to
think that people were making those sort of claculations so long ago...

...and so did the Mongols (aka Tatar) in 1237. They continued to control Russia until 1480. Details are here