Drilling Hits an Active Magma Chamber In Hawaii 251
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."
Hot Drill Bit (Score:5, Interesting)
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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
Re:Hot Drill Bit (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
However, first thing is the material that has to be removed as they drill. They would probably need some kind of rotary drill for this. Also, I can tell you from experience drilling other types of things (such as wood and concrete) that a rotary drill will never entirely occupy the volume of the borehole - there's always some slop that happens as you drill, and some space beside the drill bit. The other thing you may not have considered is that the magma could have forced a rotary drill up the borehole.
Re:Hot Drill Bit (Score:5, Funny)
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. ;-)
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You're an old hand here at Slashdot, aren't you. ;-)
*points other direction*
Look, ponies!!
Re:Hot Drill Bit (Score:5, Interesting)
TFA says This is not the first time drillers have encountered magma; the depth of the hit and the setting are, however, thought to be unique.
I'll summarize. a) this is dacite as compared to basalt (aka this is closer to "continental" magma than "Hawaiian" magma). b) It's close to the surface (2.5km) and c) it's freaking hot.
"We were at about 2.5km which is pretty routine drilling depth," explained Mr Teplow.
"But that is half the depth of experimental projects in Europe and Australia where they are drilling very deep into hot granite - some 5-5.5km down - and getting 260C rock; and here we're getting 1,050C rock."
I don't feel like doing the math right now but the power generating options from a 1000C heat source is very, very, very good.
If the geologists figure out how to find shallow magma anywhere near a cross-connected power grid, you can product a ton of energy.
For a localized environment like Hawaii, they could make huge strides in cutting external fuel needs. I'm generally anti-hydrogen because of the losses between generation and transportation but it would be very feasible for Hawaii to use the excess power from a geothermal power plant to produce hydrogen that could be transported the relatively short distances between islands by boat to provide fuel to other islands. I'm not an EE, but it seems like converting their current fuel-oil generators to hydrogen would be a fairly inexpensive process.
They already have an electric car initiative which would further cut down the bulk of their fuel oil imports.
Re:Hot Drill Bit (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Hot Drill Bit (Score:5, Funny)
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. :)
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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.
And then the geologist says, "Someone's been eating asparagus!"
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The hole was 2.5km deep. Drill bits are rotational, so the friction with the rocks causes them to reach temperatures above 700 Fahrenheit. Thus they need to be kept cool using liquid coolant. From the article, the magma entered the drill hole, but cooled down after rising a good number of metres before solidifying.
National Driller [nationaldriller.com]
Re:Hot Drill Bit (Score:5, Interesting)
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They found it (Score:2, Interesting)
Well they found it. Seems to me this would be the best source of geothermal they could hope for. If they could just keep it from plugging up the bore hole.
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well if they had some space age, heat resistant pipes to shove down there into the magma, then run some liquid through the pipes to transmit the heat to a steamer, we'd have delicious vegetables in no time. i mean geothermal power. large scale geothermal.
it'd be pricey to make the first one, but it could be a big player in renewable energy. and unlike solar panels and wind mills which are like socialized energy because everyone controls the production, this could be a major central project for a greedy corp
Re:They found it (Score:5, Funny)
I believe those pipes would need to be made from an alloy known as 'unobtainium'.
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I believe those pipes would need to be made from an alloy known as 'unobtainium'.
Isn't that an alloy of jumbonium and raritanium?
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You mean like copper? Regeneratively cooled rocket engines use copper chambers quite commonly, in an environment far harsher. As long as the cold side has enough coolant flow, the whole chamber (or in this case pipe) stays cool. There's a boundary layer of cooler gas or rock between the copper and the hot stuff that is where most of the temperature difference lies.
For efficiency in a generator, though, you want the highest fluid temperature you can get. Copper would limit the temperature, so you'd proba
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well if they had some space age, heat resistant pipes to shove down there into the magma, then run some liquid through the pipes to transmit the heat to a steamer
I believe those pipes would need to be made from an alloy known as 'unobtainium'.
Hold a lighter up to the bottom of a plastic water bottle. No, it won't melt. The water keeps it cool. As long as those pipes are always filled with water they won't melt.
Just about every method we use for creating steam uses this concept, from locomotive boilers, to hot water heaters, to the kettle on your stove. Just make sure they don't run dry, or bad things will happen. [wikipedia.org]
Re:They found it (Score:4, Informative)
'unobtainium'
What a disappointment. If only there were some kind of material [scienceblog.com] that could withstand the 1200C of near-surface magma, or some means of rapidly extracting the heat [hoval.co.uk] so we could use it for generating electricity.
Unfortunately, there's no economic incentive [geo-energy.org] to develop these technologies.
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then before you know it they drill to deep and there's a balrog running the streets.
I preferred Blanka. Or Sagat. Balrog was just an old, washed-up boxer who was easy to beat if you knew to keep your attacks below his belt.
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You might not get as much heat conducted into that pipe as you'd hope. Magma has a finite thermal conductivity. More so after it's cooled to the point of solidification.
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Again, absolutely zero knowledge of, well, anything involved here, but I assume it would be a bad idea to lay pipes anywhere with high levels of tectonic activity?
Re:They found it (Score:5, Funny)
Every time I try to lay pipe near/inside volcanoes, she tells me "not tonight, I have a headache."
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Geothermal doesn't scale. The total heat loss through the crust of the Earth over an area the size of America is only about equal to our current electriciy use. Given that solar enery per square yard is about 10,000 times geothermal energy per square yard, it doesn't make much sense to focus on geothermal (except in those rare spots where geothermal is just handy).
Re:They found it (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:They found it (Score:4, Funny)
No shit, I'm wondering how exactly it was "inadvertent" to drill into liquid hot mag-ma when you're drilling toward the hottest thing you can find on a volcanic island.
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Sort of like pissing off the roof and being surprised when it hits the ground don't you think?
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For a proper geothermal energy supply you want to drill down to the real stuff, not a random bubble up close that you found by luck that might be there for fo
Re:They found it (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Perfectly safe? (Score:5, Insightful)
When dealing with a pressurized body of molten rock with entrained gasses, I don't think one could ever say it is perfectly safe.
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Good point. Let us not forget that they plan to dig 'many' holes into the chamber. I can envision the whole area collapsing into the chamber for lack of support. A giant game of "tear on the dotted line", so to speak.
Re:Perfectly safe? (Score:4, Insightful)
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:Perfectly safe? (Score:5, Insightful)
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? (Score:5, Funny)
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"
Re:Perfectly safe? (Score:5, Funny)
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."
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Because they're geologists?
Odd misreading... (Score:5, Funny)
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Which is funny - I also misread what you said, thinking "what's wrong with 'active magma chamber'?" So I re-read it... and then I re-read it again slowly... "Oh. Manga."
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Pfft... throw in a schoolgirl in a sailor suit every month and everyone's happy.
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Duh, that's why she's wearing a sailor suit, not a school uniform. That way she can beat up the monster, but not kill it of course because that's wrong, which means it'll be back again next issue.
It's a gusher!! (Score:5, Funny)
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 ...
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Actually, in my mind, the workmen look a lot like Homer Simpson ...
In my mind, they look a lot more like Freddy Krueger.
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In my mind, they're attractive young women in bikinis.
I must be in the wrong place.
Re:It's a gusher!! (Score:5, Funny)
In my mind, there's one workwoman, she's played by Natalie Portman, and the lava is actually hot grits.
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The dream realised (Score:5, Funny)
Dare to dream, geologists. Dare to dream.
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A man goes into a restaurant, sits down and starts reading the menu. The menu says:
Broiled Accountant $5.95 per plate
Fried Engineer $7.95 per plate
Toasted Teacher $7.95 per plate
Grilled Geologist $25.95 per plate
The man calls a waiter over and asks "Hey, why does the Grilled Geologist cost so much more?"
The waiter says, " Are you kidding? Do you know how hard it is to clean one of them?!?!"
What a lode of fuchsite.
The difference. (Score:2)
Normal Person: Holy crap, we just created a vent for magma to escape!
Scientist: Ooh, we haven't studied this before!
I love it. Oh, and obligatory XKCD comic [xkcd.com].
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Yeah, I dream of that all the time. Drilling deep ... a moment on the threshold ... then suddenly, a mighty eruption.
...
...excuse me for a moment.
Time to make my secret base (Score:2)
I bet that got interesting... (Score:4, Funny)
When his gauges pegged at the upper limits and his torquemeter went to zero when he breached the wall of the chamber.
Re:I bet that got interesting... (Score:5, Funny)
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I guess now you are going out and whip a star?
That oughta get me a "-1 obscure" moderation.
Re:I bet that got interesting... (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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or gynecologist
Slashdot readers typically don't need to worry about that one...
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To paraphrase the back of one of my favorite T-shirts:
"I'm a volcanologist. If you see me running, try to keep up."
Oblig. Daniel Plainview post (Score:4, Interesting)
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Let's all go out for boiling chocolate magmashakes!
Old news.... This happened in 2005 (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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RE: So what were they not confident about?
Getting suppressed by W. and Co.
-It's science... check
-It threatens oil usage... check
Re:Old news.... This happened in 2005 (Score:4, Informative)
-It's trolling... check
No, it is more like making light of a very serious problem. [ucsusa.org]
Confdence (Score:2)
Probably waiting to see that they didn't rip open the Earth's crust, causing a global disaster like an old Dr. Who episode (Jon Pertwee).
That sounds better when read in a William Conrad voice, like in Rocky and Bulwinkle.
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They were scared! (Score:5, Informative)
In 1943 a farmer in Mexico was plowing his field, when smoke started coming from the soil. Today the nearby village is like this [wikipedia.org].
Even if the lava in the hole solidified almost instantly, they had to make sure there would be no unforeseen evolution.
Bored into the Dark One's prison (Score:2)
Quote of the year (Score:5, Funny)
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?
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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?
Possibly, but that quote makes me wonder whether my local Zoo is home to a nest of magma?
Perfectly Safe? (Score:5, Funny)
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...
Ooops (Score:4, Funny)
Dear Boss:
We had a tragic accident today. We were drilling for heat - well the good news is we found it. Lots of it. The bad news is that we destroyed a $50,000 drill bit and pipe.
Please don't fire me.
No pun intended.
Your faithful employee, and gracious servant, who hopes you will come to my home for Christmas dinner. Or any other dinner you desire...
John Doe
how magmanimous of you (Score:5, Funny)
Drill, baby, dr--AAAAUGH! It burns!
Not granite... (Score:3, Informative)
"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 [wikipedia.org] or gabbroic [wikipedia.org]) rocks, not felsic like granites [wikipedia.org]. Maybe they mean being able to observe intrusive processes like the ones that produce granite?
Re:Not granite... (Score:5, Interesting)
Read the article. This magma chamber is NOT apparently basaltic, and has much in common with magmas that produce granite. 67% silica content - which is very uncommon to see in anything on the surface here in Hawaii.
That said, the important thing isn't probably going to be understanding how volcanoes in other parts of the world work, but just in how this volcano works. That won't get as much funding as studying "how continents originally formed" or other highly derived hypotheses that this site might generate, so the geologists are focusing on what sounds good to people OTHER than Hawaiians (who are generally against messin' with da aina anyway).
-L
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Yeah, see, that's what is apparently interesting about this magma - it *is* felsic, in Hawaii, the middle of the bloody Pacific.
Re:Not granite... (Score:5, Informative)
I know this is Slashdot, but perhaps you should read the full article. The magma encountered was unusually high in silica (ie felsic) - a dacite-type lava. They are excited about this because it is showing how granitic continental-style magma can differentiate from your normal basaltic lava.
So yes, it would potentially be granitic rather than gabbroic in nature. Isn't geology fun!
The same thing happens in Iceland too, there are dacite-type and rhyolitic-type lava flows, although a far lower percentage than the normal basaltic flows. Silica-rich lava is a much nastier stuff when it gets to the surface, explosive, but more viscous and less runny than your basaltic lava. That's why you didn't get a geyser of molten-hot lava coming up the tubes [slight simplification, but hey, this is slashdot].
Jolyon
EVery last one of those mountains are still active (Score:2)
Re:EVery last one of those mountains are still act (Score:2)
Every place on earth is geologically active if you dig deep enough...
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Correct. According to a volcanologist friend at the University of Hawa'i, Maui's Haleakala is dormant, and the Big Island volcanoes are either active (Mauna Loa, Kilauea) or dormant (Mauna Kea, Hualalai) except for Kohala which is extinct. None of the other volcanoes in the chain are active or dormant except for Loihi which is an undersea volcano to the south of the Big Island.
Better call Austin Powers... (Score:2)
Drilling into a volcano - and were shocked? (Score:3, Insightful)
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?
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Drilling for geothermal energy may harm your home (Score:5, Interesting)
In the German city of Staufen, they drilled some 140m deep holes to get geothermal energy for heating the town hall and adjacent buildings.
Unfortunately, this drilling caused many cracks in houses around the city centre. Some of these cracks are said to be big enough that you can put your fingers in.
According to this article [spiegel.de] on the English Spiegel (a German news magazine) website, dated March 2008, the whole city is sinking. In a recent German article [spiegel.de] from November, they write that the city has risen several centimeters due to water mixing with gypsum deep down and therefore causing the gypsum to expand.
Volcano! (Score:2)
YNP (Score:2)
It goes to 11! (Score:2)
The volume slide of the audio player on the BBC site goes to 11! Powerpuff girls rule!
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The volume slide of the audio player on the BBC site goes to 11! Powerpuff girls rule!
Uh, no. "Up to 11" originated in This is Spinal Tap [imdb.com].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven [wikipedia.org]
Re:I'd rather be... (Score:5, Funny)
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Warning!
This is a troll recipe! I mixed it up and put it in my oven, and what came out? Tubgirl!
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Warning!
This is a troll recipe! I mixed it up and put it in my oven, and what came out? Tubgirl!
And here I was thinking that joke was going to end with ROCKCAKES!
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I know I'm feeding a troll, but seriously, this is the least offensive troll post I've ever seen on /..
This recipe looks legit; very comparable to the recipe I make.
I strongly suggest adding 1 tsp of vanilla to the batter.
If you want to make them vegan, use vegan margarine and remove the eggs. Add in either an equivalent amount of soft tofu or 2tbsp flax seed mixed with 4tbsp of water. With either sub, add one extra tbsp of baking powder.
Also, rotate the cookies halfway through the baking cycle and do not o
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Considering he was drilling for geothermal heat sources, I would say he got his calculations just right.
Some pipes with circulating coolant dropped into a magma chamber would be a great source of heat.
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Seriously, how hard is it to drill in Hawaii and hit molten rock? About as hard as it is to drill in Maine and hit water?
Sounds to me it's the joy of hitting virgin magma, which for a geologist must be better than hitting an underground reservoir of extra virgin olive oil... Or hitting the same acquifer that Poland Springs water comes from in Maine... which is pretty damned cool, or hot, or something.
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In the Uberwald regions of the Discworld, you can drill and hit underground deposits of animal fat...