Posted on 11/26/2021 6:23:25 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Here, in the country's northeast, a team of international researchers is preparing to drill two kilometres (1.2 miles) into the heart of the volcano, a Jules Verne-like project aimed at creating the world's first underground magma observatory.
Unlike the lava spewed above ground, the molten rock beneath the surface remains a mystery.
"We have never observed underground magma, apart from fortuitous encounters while drilling" in volcanoes in Hawaii and Kenya, and at Krafla in 2009, he says.
"Knowing where the magma is located... is vital" in order to be prepared for an eruption. "Without that, we are nearly blind," says Papale.
That close to liquid magma, the rock reaches temperatures so extreme that the fluids are "supercritical", a state in-between liquid and gas. The energy produced there is five to 10 times more powerful than in a conventional borehole.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
And they tell us this on BLACK Friday?
Hope they have a really good blowout preventer on the rig.
So, I wonder what kind of materials these "observatories" will be made of?
I don’t know anything about drilling, but I do know what happens when I stick a needle into a boil, cyst or big azz zit. Bad things come out of those y’all. Bad things...
_”Hope they have a really good blowout preventer on the rig.”
It’s like on the other side of the world, what’s to worry?
Didn’t everybody move to the new and improved model after BP’s Deep Horizon?
Rick Wakeman was and remains awesome.
You don’t want to mess with father nature. I put father in there just to mess with the wokesters.
—”So, I wonder what kind of materials these “observatories” will be made of?”
Water/steam/liquid cooled ceramics?
Sodium? or something in that direction.
A fun topic.
I never wanted to be around a geothermal rig, let alone one trying to drill into magma (although I suppose you could think of that as extreme geothermal drilling).
In 1989, I was doing a gold-exploration drilling project in Dixie Valley in Nevada, out east of Fallon. The project lasted several weeks, during which time a big oil-field type rig spent about a week drilling a hole a few miles away. One morning I came out and the big rig was gone, leaving a jet of steam being deflected horizontally from their collar. That steam was blowing about 100 yards out before it started to rise, and you could hear the shrieking ten miles away. Geothermal stuff can be pretty impressive, but I’d rather see it from a distance.
Watch that first step
Regards,
—”That steam was blowing about 100 yards out before it started to rise, and you could hear the shrieking ten miles away. Geothermal stuff can be pretty impressive, but I’d rather see it from a distance.”
I retired from BP R&D and have only seen the oil patch in safety films, but have heard some fun stories.
I’d be more concerned about the things in tremors, cause I do not have the hardware Burt had.
Burt Gummer : Broke into the wrong goddamn rec room, didn’t ya you bastard!
Earl Bassett : Man Burt, you put a whole new shine on the word ‘overkill’.
Burt Gummer : When you need it, and don’t have it... you sing a different tune.
Burt Gummer : I am COMPLETELY out of ammo. That’s never happened to me before.
I retired last year after 30-some years mostly in exploration and mining geology, but metals, not oil. Lots of core drilling and reverse-circulation drilling projects over the years.
What kind of monitoring gear do they use that would not be destroyed by the magma?
A fascinating question and I can only guess.
My guess: when the heat/pressure becomes too much for conventional drilling-—a microwave type that will melt/ vaporize the rock.
to remove the vaporized rock a smaller diameter line will down the bore with compressed gas(?) to cool and blow the spoils to the top. Also, wires for power, signal, and instrumentation will be cooled by the gas.
Still very hot but possible.
With luck, someone that actually knows of this line of work will fill us in.
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