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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."
I would love to know why it was kept quiet for so long.
"The breakthrough was made in 2005. Only now are researchers confident enough about their work to discuss the details publicly."
So what were they not confident about? Hot temperatures - check. No drill bit left - check. Rock fused to end of drill - check.
wot no sig
"Magma specialist Bruce Marsh says it will allow scientists to observe directly how granites are made."
No, because the magma in Hawaii is mafic in composition, yielding basaltic or gabbroic) rocks, not felsic like granites. Maybe they mean being able to observe intrusive processes like the ones that produce granite?
You're picturing a drill bit like you'd find on the end of your drill at home, with grooves running all the way up the bit that transport the cuttings to the surface. In rock drilling there's a bit at the bottom of the hole(either percussive or rotary), connected to the drill rig by a pipe of smaller diameter than the bit. Cuttings are forced up through the space between the drill pipe and the wall of the borehole by either high pressure air or water.
In 1943 a farmer in Mexico was plowing his field, when smoke started coming from the soil. Today the nearby village is like this.
Even if the lava in the hole solidified almost instantly, they had to make sure there would be no unforeseen evolution.
We simply don't have anywhere near the technology to harness this sort of heat into energy.
Like hell we don't, molten salt solar plants use salts that boil at 1400C and magma only reaches about 1300C max, the solidified area that would form around the pipe would lower the delta T to well below what such a system could handle.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
'unobtainium'
What a disappointment. If only there were some kind of material that could withstand the 1200C of near-surface magma, or some means of rapidly extracting the heat so we could use it for generating electricity.
Unfortunately, there's no economic incentive to develop these technologies.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain