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Iceland To Drill Hole Into Volcano

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the tapping-the-earth-for-energy dept.

G3ckoG33k writes "BBC reports that Iceland will drill a hole into a volcano so it can tap heat from it, which eventually is hoped to produce commercially available energy. From the article: "Twenty years ago, geologist Gudmundur Omar Friedleifsson had a surprise when he lowered a thermometer down a borehole. 'We melted the thermometer,' he recalls. 'It was set for 380C; but it just melted.'". Excuse me, Gudmundur, but how could that ever have been a 'surprise'..."

6 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Warn Iceland! by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't they realize that Volcanic Energy has directly caused more deaths than Nuclear Energy?

    When will people learn that there is no safe form of energy?!

    The volcano gods are gonna be so angered when they find out Iceland is mooching the heat. If I know my mythology, nothing (and I mean nothing) pisses a god off like free stuff for humans. We should just rename Iceland to New Pompeii right now.

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    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Warn Iceland! by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Setting: Two men in suits with charts stand before an Icelandic government committee.

      Pitch Guy 1: "Boy it sure is cold out today! Now, I know this sounds a little far out there, but we've been studying the volcano over there and we predict that it has energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT. Now that energy is, by our god given right, ours. It's just as valuable as the oil underneath the Middle East. So, we induce an eruption."

      Pitch Guy 2: "It's that simple. But John, won't the people be mad that the government is getting all this free energy?"

      Pitch Guy 1: "No, no, here's the best part. That energy will be distributed ... equally."

      Pitch Guy 2: "Gentlemen, I think the real question here today is, 'How can we afford not to induce an eruption?'"

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      My work here is dung.
  2. Doctor Who by lisaparratt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do they not watch Doctor Who in Iceland?

    It'll be green skinned monsters and parallel universes before you know it!

  3. Surprise by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was a surprise because his hypothesis was that they would find thetans living there.

    --
    If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
  4. Lesson Learned by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Twenty years ago, geologist Gudmundur Omar Friedleifsson had a surprise when he lowered a thermometer down a borehole. 'We melted the thermometer,' he recalls. 'It was set for 380C; but it just melted.'"


    He should have known better than to try to take a volcano god's temperature rectally.

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    This space unintentionally left blank.
  5. Re:Deep Thought by Jack Handy by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Funny

    Worse, I've even heard a story of a guy who had his ring dropped in lava, HE was gone!

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    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.