Iceland Eyes Liquid Magma As Energy Source 215
An anonymous reader writes "Scientists in Iceland have been studying and utilizing the power of geothermal wells for years. In 2009 one such study hit a standstill when a group ran into magma halfway into their dig. The roadblock has become a blessing in disguise, as recent research has shown that the magma can act as a potent new source of geothermal energy powerful enough to heat 25,000 to 30,000 homes."
Re:Also (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stop cooling magma (Score:4, Insightful)
Meanwhile, try this thought experiment: throw an ice cube into a swimming pool full of boiling oatmeal and see how much the melting ice cube affects the temperature of the oatmeal. Now scale that up by a factor of, say, ten million.
Re:needed to head off next supervolcano? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are a few supervolcanoes around the world. Yellowstone has been going off about every 3/4 million years for around 20 milllion years, and it's due. Toba nearly wiped out humanity 75000 years ago. Can we do anything about it? Defuse them by sucking all the power out of them with geothermal energy extraction?
No. Luckily, we can't. Also worth noting that tidal power plants won't eliminate tsunamis, wind power won't prevent hurricanes and solar power isn't going to reduce skin cancer. And more importantly, if any of those were likely to have such drastic effects then it would be a really really Bad Thing to Do.
Liquid magma? (Score:5, Insightful)
As opposed to what? Solid magma is more commonly called "rock".
Re:Also (Score:3, Insightful)
If buffalos were meant to fly, they would have buffalo wings.
Man have buffalo wings, therefore man were meant to fly.
QED
Re: One Hot Pipe (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What could possibly go wrong? (Score:4, Insightful)
We are on a living planet.
No, we're not. Stop it already with the "living planet" bullshit. The Earth is a geologically active lump of rock and metal, with a very thin layer of life on the crust. The planet itself is not alive in even the loosest scientific definition of "life".
Anthropomorphizing (Score:3, Insightful)
People who like to think they are 'green' , often try to imbue inanimate objects with living traits.
It is pretty sad they have no real concepts about the most basic issues. Sure, there are some
lifeforms on Earth, but that does not make the planet living, it is merely dynamic.
Re:Please check my logic (Score:5, Insightful)
The human harvesting of geothermal energy is totally insignificant compared to natural cooling over the entire surface of the earth.