Re: Tap the supervolcanoes to prevent a worldwide catastrophy
From: The Ghost In The Machine (ewill_at_sirius.athghost7038suus.net)
Date: 01/09/05
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Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 00:00:09 GMT
In sci.physics, Ed Earl Ross
<edearl@satx.rr.com>
wrote
on Sat, 08 Jan 2005 21:02:46 GMT
<WTXDd.13360$3m6.1062@fe2.texas.rr.com>:
> The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
>> In sci.physics, Pete Lynn
>> <pete@peterlynnkites.com>
>> wrote
>> on Sat, 8 Jan 2005 21:22:21 +1300
>> <1105172476.527810@kyle.snap.net.nz>:
>>
>>>"The Ghost In The Machine" <ewill@sirius.athghost7038suus.net> wrote in
>>>message news:3434b2-05s.ln1@sirius.athghost7038suus.net...
>>>
>>><snip>
>>>
>>>>E = 3.978 * 10^7 kWh.
>>>
>>>Are you sure that was 25000 cubic kilometers, as opposed to cubic
>>>meters? My quick rough calc got a lot more than that. I figured
>>>there was enough energy there for a few centuries.
>>>
>>>On the technical side, it should in theory be possible to construct a
>>>drilling head that worked at say a 1000C. With such active cooling you
>>>should be able to drill through molten rock, though it would be cooled
>>>solid by then, rock being a rather good insulator. You would be
>>>generating power long before you finished drilling.
>>>
>>>This is not to say that it would necessarily currently be economic...
>>>
>>>
>>>Pete.
>>>
>>
>>
>> Ack...did I say it was still standing? :-) It just got blown away,
>> although one can stand it up again by multiplying all results
>> by 10^9, resulting in enough energy to power the US for about
>> 300 or so years.
>>
>> Sigh. :-)
>>
>
> That magma heated by the interior of the earth. According to
> http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Inside.shtml,
> the earth's core is 2,000 miles in diameter and hotter than the
> surface of the sun. That is about 3.5M cubic miles of very hot
> stuff, which is continuously heated by tidal forces and atomic
> energy. This heat source will last much more than a few hundred years.
The assumption of the calculation was that there was no additional
heat; you are of course correct. There is, however, the little
problem of extracting said heat, as hot rocks infused by cold
water tend to get, well...cold.
It would be interesting to contemplate how much energy is required
to drill into said rock. Suppose, say, one had a 1 km x 10 m x 10 m
hot rock section, insulated from surrounding environs. (The rock
is hot enough to make steam but not hot enough to go plastic.)
Assuming a more or less standard diamondtooth bore and all of the
extractable energy can be extracted from the rock (taking into
account Carnot's efficiency formula), would it be economically
viable to drill into said column?
Bear in mind that the energy includes such things as fabricating
the head, turning the head, removing the glop, and such.
Where would I start looking for info on this sort of thing? :-)
-- #191, ewill3@earthlink.net It's still legal to go .sigless.
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