Geothermal Energy
eklemetti | December 31, 2009Here it is, my attempt to recap a year's worth of volcanic events. By no means is this supposed to capture every event, but rather the highlight/lowlights and what most captivated me during 2009. I'll be announcing the winner of the 2009 Pliny for Volcanic Event of the Year tomorrow.
Waimangu Geothermal Valley in New Zealand, taken in January 2009 by Erik Klemetti.
January
The year started out with a trip to New Zealand (well, for me at least) and vistas of the Waimangu Valley, formed in the 1886 eruption of Tarawera on the North Island. We were also still thinking about the late 2008…
eklemetti | June 26, 2009
Drilling in Iceland lead by geologists from UC Davis hit magma this week. Image courtesy of Peter Schiffman, UC Davis.
Quick props to my officemate here at UC Davis, Naomi Marks, who happened to be part of a team (with UC Davis geology faculty Peter Schiffman and Robert Zierenberg) that drilled into active rhyolite magma in Iceland this week. Doesn't happen very often - this might be the third recorded time humans have drilled into magma - but when it does, it is very exciting. The magma was hit ~2 miles / 5 km below the surface and is likely an offshoot of a larger magmatic system nearby.…
eklemetti | June 19, 2009Some volcano news before the weekend:
The Barujari vent at Mt. Rinjani erupting in May 2009.
Barujari, the small basaltic volcano located in the crater at Mt. Rinjani, is "spewing 200-meter-high lava", at least according to recent reports. It is unclear if the eruption is, in fact, a fountain or merely strombolian activity throwing incandescent blocks that high (see above). My guess is that it is the latter, as that is much more typical for Barujari. Another report mentions a 600 meter "river of lava" (in spanish) that ends at Segara Anak lake. The volcano has been erupting all spring with…
eklemetti | May 6, 2009
The Geysers Geothermal Power Plant
Eruptions reader (and former hallmate at Oregon State) Ed Kohut sent me a message today pointing out that there is an ongoing earthquake swarm in the area of the Geysers in northern California. Now, I don't know what the normal seismicity is underneath the Clear Lake area and this area is part of the San Andreas fault system, so these earthquake are likely not volcanically related, but I post them here just as a reminder of how difficult it can be to deconvolve these geologic signals.
The Geysers are part of the Clear Lake volcanic region, which is still…
eklemetti | April 8, 2009
Canlaon volcano, Philippines
Geothermal energy is one of those sources of energy that might be able to solve a lot of the planet's energy problems - heck, the Earth has a lot of heat it is trying to get rid of, so taking that heat and turning into energy seems like an easy (and clean?) way to stop using fossil fuels and the like. Of course, like any supposed panacea, it has its problems.
However, one aspect that gets people are riled is whether drilling into areas of active magmatism might actually cause volcanism. Just in the last few weeks, a controversy was sparked in the Philippines…
eklemetti | March 30, 2009
Image courtesy of the Southern California Earthquake Center
I have to admit, I've only been perpherially following the earthquake swarm currently going on in Southern California, near the end of one of the strands of the San Andreas fault out below the Salton Sea (see the bottom of the map above). The "Bombay Beach" swarm (as I'll call it ... beats me what most people are calling it) is being closely monitored by the USGS. However, from what I had heard from a friend of mine with a more structure/tectonics background, looked like tectonic quakes with "beachball focal mechanism solutions"…
eklemetti | June 24, 2008
If Alaska wants to take a cue from Iceland, it might find itself with more power than it can use. That is, if the dreams of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas come true. They are planning to lease land on Mt. Spurr and possibly Mt. Augustine for geothermal exploration. Both of these volcanoes are active, with Mt. Spurr erupting last in 1992 (famously almost taking out a KLM 747 due to volcanic ash EDIT: Oops, this was not Spurr in 1992, but Redoubt in 1989. Luckily, AVO knew to warn aviation about the Spurr eruption thanks to the lessons learned from the near disaster at Redoubt) and…
eklemetti | May 29, 2008
The Oregonian reports on the on-going desire to develop geothermal power in the Oregon and California Cascades and backarc. There have been attempted (or at least exploration) to develop geothermal power at Newberry Volcano, Crater Lake and Medicine Lake, but none have ever panned out. Well, it seems like this time it might happen, and I, for one, think it is a good idea. Of course, there are a lot of folks who don't want a geothermal plant anywhere near Newberry, especially with its National Monument designation, but one of these days we'll have to choose between that and higher energy…