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Drilling Hits an Active Magma Chamber In Hawaii
Smivs writes "The BBC are reporting that drillers looking for geothermal energy in Hawaii have inadvertently put a well right into a magma chamber.
Molten rock pushed back up the borehole several meters before solidifying, making it perfectly safe to study. Magma specialist Bruce Marsh says it will allow scientists to observe directly how granites are made. 'This is unprecedented; this is the first time a magma has been found in its natural habitat,' the Johns Hopkins University professor told BBC News. 'Before, all we had to deal with were lava flows; but they are the end of a magma's life. They're lying there on the surface, they've de-gassed. It's not the natural habitat.' It is hoped the site can now become a laboratory, with a series of cores drilled around the chamber to better characterise the crystallisation changes occurring in the rock as it loses temperature."
You insensitive clod! What if Timothy reads this?
Dammit, I read "..active manga chamber...". Confused, yes.
Oh arse
All that I can picture is the classic 19th century drill tower with glowing magma spraying from the top, and lava-coated workmen running around cheering "It's a gusher!!"
Actually, in my mind, the workmen look a lot like Homer Simpson ...
"It has been described as a geologist's dream"
Dare to dream, geologists. Dare to dream.
Well, thanks to the Internet, I'm now bored with sex.
That sentence somehow got me pretty hot
This is unprecedented; this is the first time a magma has been found in its natural habitat
Is this professor also known as David Attenborough?
Molten rock pushed back up the borehole several meters before solidifying, making it perfectly safe to study.
I don't think that phrase means what you think it means...
Molten rock pushed back up the borehole several meters before solidifying, making it perfectly safe to study
I'm sure they're leaving out their initial observations which probably went something like: "OH FUCK!! RUN! ok.. i think it stopped.. let's change our underwear then we'll send the new guy over to check it out"
I believe those pipes would need to be made from an alloy known as 'unobtainium'.
Interesting might be an understatement. More like "Oh Shit!" You know, those two words you never want to hear your bomb technician, drill operator, or gynecologist exclaim.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Drill, baby, dr--AAAAUGH! It burns!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Every time I try to lay pipe near/inside volcanoes, she tells me "not tonight, I have a headache."
I'm fairly certain you're wrong in your reasoning, but I also am not an expert on the subject so I could be wrong as well.
You're an old hand here at Slashdot, aren't you. ;-)
I'm sure they're leaving out their initial observations which probably went something like: "OH FUCK!! RUN! ok.. i think it stopped.. let's change our underwear then we'll send the new guy over to check it out"
"Oh yes, of course it's perfectly safe, Ensign Burke. Nothing to worry about. Now go on over there and examine the bore hole. Oh but first put on this official red shirt signifying your position on our team."
The enemies of Democracy are
I have worked in economic geology as a summer student when I was at university, and I can vouch for the fact that hollow rotary drills are in common use. The drill core (the part of the rock that goes in the hollow centre) is the whole purpose of drilling the hole in the earth.
The drill is a gasoline or diesel engine, and the drill bit is a piecewise continuous long hollow tube. The drill bit is quite short, and the business end is a ring of industrial diamonds. The whole tube spins, and water is used to carry away the cuttings. To remove the core, the whole nine yards gets pulled up, and the drill core comes with it. The drill core is put in boxes, with depth markings on it.
The last (optional) step is for the drill operator to piss on the drill core. When the geologist opens the box of drill core, the first thing he does is lick the rock, because you can see the colour variations in wet rock a lot easier than in dry rock.
It seems to me that if you drilled into some magma with one of these diamond drills, you would run the risk of the whole earth collapsing like a balloon thththpththpthpthpthtpp. :)