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

Re:but

[Fantastic Lad]

how can we be sure that this isn't some stupid new viral advertising campaign for a Emmerich movie?

I'm sorry, but I'm fairly certain you meant to write. . .

"how can we be sure that this isn't a viral advertising campaign for some stupid new Emmerich movie?"?

Heck, that even makes your broken article work. Bonus points! (I just watched "Idiocracy" again. For some reason I always become a Grammar Nazi after seeing that film. . . Brr.)

-FL

Why is the BBC telling us this?

[aqk]

WTF?

  Americans aren't interested?

Hey let Canada, or worse, CHINA, take over Hawaii.

  We will appreciate this stuff.

  Dumb 'mericuns...