1. Subscribersonhouse
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    26 Apr '10 01:13
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8643326.stm

    I remember a piece on volcano's that suggested some of them blow then magma sinks and sometimes solidify and then a REALLY big blow happens when the plug forces higher and higher pressures underneath leading to something like Mt St. Helens or some such.
    So if they tap significant amounts of energy from the volcano ( I have no doubt they can do just that) could it create a condition the solidifies the magma and sometime later, even 30 years later, a huge blow happens. Sound possible?
  2. Standard memberAThousandYoung
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    26 Apr '10 03:38
    Originally posted by sonhouse
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8643326.stm

    I remember a piece on volcano's that suggested some of them blow then magma sinks and sometimes solidify and then a REALLY big blow happens when the plug forces higher and higher pressures underneath leading to something like Mt St. Helens or some such.
    So if they tap significant amounts of energy f ...[text shortened]... difies the magma and sometime later, even 30 years later, a huge blow happens. Sound possible?
    Doesn't Iceland already do this?
  3. Germany
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    26 Apr '10 06:26
    Originally posted by AThousandYoung
    Doesn't Iceland already do this?
    Yes.
  4. Standard memberjoneschr
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    26 Apr '10 20:43
    Totally ignorant on this, but I suspect they're not tapping into the area directly under the volcano - they're just drilling fairly near Volcanos - under the idea that areas with hotspots have thinner crust in general.

    The problem you're addressing would only be a factor if you built up a big blockage underneath the volcano -- not just nearby.

    ?
  5. silicon valley
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    26 Apr '10 23:13
    seems like tapping a volcano would be more like a mosquito bite than constipation-resulting-in-explosion.
  6. silicon valley
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    26 Apr '10 23:14
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohole
  7. silicon valley
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    26 Apr '10 23:17
    apparently drill bits don't work at 570 deg F. i'd have thought they were tougher than that. implications for steel girders in the Twin Towers?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

    The Kola Superdeep Borehole (Russian: Кольская сверхглубокая скважин&#1072😉 is the result of a scientific drilling project of the former USSR. The project attempted to drill as deep as possible into the Earth's crust. Drilling began on 24 May 1970 on the Kola Peninsula, using the Uralmash-4E, and later the Uralmash-15000 series drilling rig. A number of boreholes were drilled by branching from a central hole. The deepest, SG-3, reached 12,262 metres (40,230 ft) in 1989, and remains the deepest hole ever drilled.[1]

    ...

    However, due to higher than expected temperatures at this depth and location, 180 °C (356 °F) instead of expected 100 °C (212 °F), drilling deeper was deemed unfeasible and the drilling was stopped in 1992.[3] With the expected further increase in temperature with increasing depth, drilling to 15,000 m (49,000 ft) would have meant working at a projected 300 °C (570 °F), at which the drill bit would no longer work.
  8. Subscribersonhouse
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    29 Apr '10 06:421 edit
    Originally posted by zeeblebot
    apparently drill bits don't work at 570 deg F. i'd have thought they were tougher than that. implications for steel girders in the Twin Towers?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

    The Kola Superdeep Borehole (Russian: Кольская сверхглу&# ve meant working at a projected 300 °C (570 °F), at which the drill bit would no longer work.
    It's a matter of higher temps softening the metal, they just lose the ability to chop into rock at that point. That seems to me perhaps not to be the case forever, just finding reasonably cheap alternative alloys, titanium, chrome steel, moly, something like that. Diamonds might last longer also, I think they don't burn till they are over 1000 degrees F, not sure of that though.
    Another technique that might work is high powered lasers, they are getting past 100 Kw in military apps, I bet they could be used to vaporize hot rocks, I mean the rocks are ALREADY hot, so how much laser zapping would it take to vaporize the sucker? Another benny: no moving parts, just a really well collimated beam that could be way up in the hole compared to the end. Then you just vacuum up the debris. I think ways will be found if the political will and big time money gets involved.
  9. Standard memberavalanchethecat
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    29 Apr '10 18:56
    Originally posted by sonhouse
    It's a matter of higher temps softening the metal, they just lose the ability to chop into rock at that point. That seems to me perhaps not to be the case forever, just finding reasonably cheap alternative alloys, titanium, chrome steel, moly, something like that. Diamonds might last longer also, I think they don't burn till they are over 1000 degrees F, no ...[text shortened]... the debris. I think ways will be found if the political will and big time money gets involved.
    As I recall diamonds ain't so useful at high temps - don't they just start bonding with oxygen and turning into expensive CO2? Anyhow, if you've got a volcano on your doorstep, surely you already got plenty of easily accessible geothermal energy - just chuck in a turbine and bob's your uncle.
  10. silicon valley
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    29 Apr '10 22:41
    Originally posted by sonhouse
    It's a matter of higher temps softening the metal, they just lose the ability to chop into rock at that point. That seems to me perhaps not to be the case forever, just finding reasonably cheap alternative alloys, titanium, chrome steel, moly, something like that. Diamonds might last longer also, I think they don't burn till they are over 1000 degrees F, no ...[text shortened]... the debris. I think ways will be found if the political will and big time money gets involved.
    it would be good practice. you'd think a military laser weapon would need a range greater than 8 miles anyway.

    but the vaporized rock might interfere with the beam. how to get it out?
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