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Drilling For Magma
Makarand writes "In an effort to better understand volcanic eruption patterns researchers in
Japan are planning undertake the world's first volcano drilling experiment to get samples of magma
according to this
Japan Times online article.
They plan to drill
1700 meters deep to penetrate a volcanic vent.
The drilling operation will use muddy water as a coolant
which will also help prevent volcanic gas and other substances
from spewing out. They will start in late January
and are expected to extract a sample about 200 meters long and 15 cm in diameter by summer.
Studying such samples is expected to reveal
secrets not possible with studies conducted from above ground and mere observation of rocks around the volcanic vent."
I just pray they'll be able to restart the core spinning. Man, those superstorms really look dangerous!
GMD
watch this
God, this sounds like a candidate for a Darwin award, isn't magma pressurized, isn't this why it shoots out of volcanos with force??
We have enough problems with real volcanos ;)
Could this be used for evil world domination purposes??
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
I knew singin' the blues was cool, but damn, I never realized just how cool.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
At a previous job, I wrote code to clean up data entry problems in oil well data. If someone put an extra digit into the Total Depth field, those were flagged as Magma wells. (it's only funny if there is no such thing, you see)
On the other hand, it's nice to look at this story and realize my code would simply call this a 170m well and move on its merry way.
or does this sound like the beginning of a bad scifi movie that ends with large, rampaging monsters destroying Tokyo?
To awaken Godzilla!
The magma there has solidified due to cooling during an eruption but still measures 600 to 700 degrees.
Since nothing can drill into such hot bedrock, the team will bore while using muddy water to cool it. The water will also help prevent volcanic gas and other substances from spewing out during the operation.
With certain very high temp materials, they could make robots that swim in the magma, hey, a new form of transportation. We'll have japanese rising from underground here and there.
Interesting to think what would happen if they try nuke tests near the core. Hmmmmmm...
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Why I have this showing up under the list of science headlines, but not under the main headlines? I even have Science turned on in the right sidebar, but half the science headlines don't show up.
no big sig
Hard rock kept breaking the bits.
Thank you!
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
all the gravity will fall out!
The quote is asking about eruption patterns differing depending on the volcano. It seems to me you need a sample size of more than, um, one to come to any conclusions. I wonder which other volcanos they plan on drilling into?
Your science is a little off... if the magma near the surface is under pressure, it's under pressure in ALL directions... pressure isn't like gravity, it doesn't act in only one direction. If you had magma that was hot enough to be fluid and you opened a path to lesser pressure, it would take that path just as any other pressurized fluid would. However I believe that the article states that the magma in question has cooled quite a bit so that may not be an issue.
"All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell
The journalist evidently thought drilling mud (which he seems to have understood was "muddy water") is a novelty. It is not. It is a slurry of various components in various recipes, designed to cool and lubricate the bit and hold the hole open, to which end it is usually designed to have a high specific gravity. It is pumped down the hollow drill stem, and through the doughnut-shaped bit, to flow up the outside of the stem (lubricating it, as well) to the surface, and in to a mud tank, from which it is recycled. The drill cuttings it carries may be examined and saved as part of the drill-hole record.