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Posted on 12/17/2008 8:36:40 PM PST by Clint Williams
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."
Wow, learn something new every day. Who knew there were people out their who get excited about watching rocks solidify.
This is not the news the Clampetts wanted to hear...
In the sci-fi movies, isn’t this supposed to result in disaster?
Or does that only happen when you drop in the A-bomb?
Why is lava drying interesting or important? I thought they’d be excited about taping into an unlimited source of heat to create clean electric energy. Shows how much I know about science...
...and awaken Gamera.
Hope they had a good blow-out preventor!
Yes, I'm sure. Read the rest of the article for more knee slappers.....
Imagine: a magma specialist. Is that a narrow field, or what?
-PJ
Released gasses are notorious (sulfur, NOx in particular are worst, but many thousand variants are deadly, smelly, and corrode the pipes, if they they don't collapse or crud up the pipes while corroding them)
Very, very nasty stuff. Here, instead of just “hot rock” - there is actual lava - which is a better heat source! - but the water needed to get pumped down, then back up and cleaned, then re-pressurized and pumped back down make geothermal power very high risk, low return.
Except noxious odors. Those are about guaranteed.
It's one of the hottest jobs around [/rimshot]
I understand the interest in lava is spreading around country. Well, at least around HI.
It's a hot topic right now.
And, when you get right down to it, lava is, underneath it all, the foundation of geology.
"Magma Specialist" = Rock Star
Your sense of humor just bubbles to the top in everything you write.
Sounds like a Benny Hill episode.
Were there scantily clad Hawaiian maidens chasing the engineers around a bush?
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It doesn't "dry," it "cools." As the article notes:
...it will allow scientists to observe directly how granites are made. ... 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."Direct observation has been key to much advancement in science (Latin for "knowledge"). In this case they can repeatedly observe what's never been seen before and at best could only be only inferred.
Doesn't, er, hold a candle to nuclear engineering... *\;-)
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