5 ms·

SMU & Google find abundance of geothermal energy in US

29 points by joemysterio 15y ago

munin 15y ago
oh, there's an editorial in nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v462/n7275/full/462848a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v462/n7275/full/462848a...) about how this could cause earthquakes? awesome. well, nothing worth doing is risk-free, right? also I love how when google funds something now, they also do it. it seems that all of the investigators were SMU people but because google.org paid for it, now it was discovered by google as well. ;)
- chadmalik 15y ago
  Hey what's a few earthquakes when feeding our insatiable desire for more energy is involved? I for one think what happens to the earth is much less important than making sure "consumers" can consume more perishable products, faster.
- Someone 15y ago
  For reference: drilling for oil or natural gas also causes earthquakes. For example, many (even most, I think. http://www.knmi.nl/seismologie/aardbevingen-nederland.html http://www.knmi.nl/seismologie/aardbevingen-nederland.html has a map of the last 30; most are up north beneath the Slochteren field) earthquakes in the Netherlands are caused by the sinking of the earth's surface due to removal of natural gas. It also is important to notice that earthquakes need not be disastrous. The largest of those 30 was a magnitude 4.5 a couple of months ago. It made the news.
- illumen 15y ago
  'Fraking' has caused earth quakes in the uk, where they are trying to extract the gas down there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing But that is a slightly different thing to geothermal drilling. You're basically drilling 4km down, and putting a big pipe in. Then you run water through it, which heats the water. There have been no earth quakes caused in Australian drilling for geo thermal plants to my knowledge. However, it depends on the technology used. Some of these people are just dumping massive amounts of toxic chemicals and blasting the crap out of the rocks. Obviously this affects the water down there - and is super evil. If you're careful, and with planning I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to do safely and in a non toxic way.
  - munin 15y ago
    oh yes, fracking the US has caused both earthquakes and that awesome picture of a woman lighting her tapwater on fire. just saying, earthquakes.
  - jessriedel 15y ago
    > There have been no earth quakes caused in Australian drilling for geo thermal plants to my knowledge There was a serious earthquake in Switzerland caused by geothermal plants (not gas extraction). I believe minor ones have also occurred in the US. My understanding is that the risk is very manageable, though.
- jessriedel 15y ago
  I know you're just teasing, but: when I say "Our family built a new house" I don't mean that we laid the bricks, I mean we paid to have it built. And I think it's entirely appropriate the the company who expended the resources to make the research happen gets full credit (to the extent that no one mistakes this for evidence of the research capabilities of Google's employees).
rbanffy 15y ago
I wonder if something like this could be used to desalinate sea water.
- Sapient 15y ago
  Probably, but I imagine there might be a massive build-up of salt, leaving the "mine" unusable after a while.
  - rbanffy 15y ago
    Nah. It was a bad idea from the start. When you inject the water into the well you'll end up with it carrying all sorts of salts it finds down there.

29 points by joemysterio 15y ago

munin 15y ago

oh, there's an editorial in nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v462/n7275/full/462848a.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v462/n7275/full/462848a...) about how this could cause earthquakes? awesome. well, nothing worth doing is risk-free, right? also I love how when google funds something now, they also do it. it seems that all of the investigators were SMU people but because google.org paid for it, now it was discovered by google as well. ;)

chadmalik 15y ago
Hey what's a few earthquakes when feeding our insatiable desire for more energy is involved? I for one think what happens to the earth is much less important than making sure "consumers" can consume more perishable products, faster.
Someone 15y ago
For reference: drilling for oil or natural gas also causes earthquakes. For example, many (even most, I think. http://www.knmi.nl/seismologie/aardbevingen-nederland.html http://www.knmi.nl/seismologie/aardbevingen-nederland.html has a map of the last 30; most are up north beneath the Slochteren field) earthquakes in the Netherlands are caused by the sinking of the earth's surface due to removal of natural gas. It also is important to notice that earthquakes need not be disastrous. The largest of those 30 was a magnitude 4.5 a couple of months ago. It made the news.
illumen 15y ago
'Fraking' has caused earth quakes in the uk, where they are trying to extract the gas down there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing But that is a slightly different thing to geothermal drilling. You're basically drilling 4km down, and putting a big pipe in. Then you run water through it, which heats the water. There have been no earth quakes caused in Australian drilling for geo thermal plants to my knowledge. However, it depends on the technology used. Some of these people are just dumping massive amounts of toxic chemicals and blasting the crap out of the rocks. Obviously this affects the water down there - and is super evil. If you're careful, and with planning I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to do safely and in a non toxic way.
- munin 15y ago
  oh yes, fracking the US has caused both earthquakes and that awesome picture of a woman lighting her tapwater on fire. just saying, earthquakes.
- jessriedel 15y ago
  > There have been no earth quakes caused in Australian drilling for geo thermal plants to my knowledge There was a serious earthquake in Switzerland caused by geothermal plants (not gas extraction). I believe minor ones have also occurred in the US. My understanding is that the risk is very manageable, though.
jessriedel 15y ago
I know you're just teasing, but: when I say "Our family built a new house" I don't mean that we laid the bricks, I mean we paid to have it built. And I think it's entirely appropriate the the company who expended the resources to make the research happen gets full credit (to the extent that no one mistakes this for evidence of the research capabilities of Google's employees).

rbanffy 15y ago

I wonder if something like this could be used to desalinate sea water.

Sapient 15y ago
Probably, but I imagine there might be a massive build-up of salt, leaving the "mine" unusable after a while.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  Nah. It was a bad idea from the start. When you inject the water into the well you'll end up with it carrying all sorts of salts it finds down there.