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."

Comments

Perfectly safe?

[truckaxle]

Molten rock pushed back up the borehole several meters before solidifying, making it perfectly safe to study

When dealing with a pressurized body of molten rock with entrained gasses, I don't think one could ever say it is perfectly safe.

Re:Perfectly safe?

[Fastolfe]

If it were truly under a dangerous amount of pressure, wouldn't this borehole have become another volcano? The fact that it traveled only a short distance before solidifying suggests the pressure isn't a concern.

Re:Perfectly safe?

[SatanicPuppy]

Not sure that would be an issue. Magma is pretty dense, so it's not like a huge chunk of rock would just displace into it in the same way as if it were water. Depending on the density of the rock above, it might even float on the magma.

It's also pretty close to the surface (obviously) so there isn't (apparently) enough weight on it to produce the pressure needed to remove some of that magma and create a void for the land to fall into.

It also appears to be self-sealing, which is also good for safety.

For a hellish molten holocaust waiting to happen, it seems pretty benign.

Re:Hot Drill Bit

[von_rick]

I think they must've used a pile driver and not a traditional drill.

Molten rock pushed back up the borehole

If it was rotary drill, it would have occupied the volume of the borehole.

But knowing very little about geological drilling, I admit that I could be entirely wrong in my reasoning

Drilling into a volcano - and were shocked?

[kimvette]

But the drillers were shocked - not only to hit magma but to also hit such a big heat source at the relatively shallow depth of 2.5km.

I'm sorry, call me naive. However, would any of you here be shocked if you drill into a frigging volcano and discover - gasp - magma?

I mean, isn't all of Hawaii just a bunch of volcanos? How can anyone be "shocked" to find magma close to the surface of a volcano? Especially geologists? Like, isn't geology their field? Doesn't it stand to reason that a volcano, you know, a mountain made of lava flows, lava which when underground is called magma, just might -- might -- have magma relatively close to the surface?

Re:They found it

[frieko]

That's only because there's a blanket of insulating rock holding the heat in. Hence the need for volcano-pipes.