I am in one of many world’s volcanic hotspots, northeast Iceland, close to the Krafla volcano.
A brief distance away I can see the rim of the volcano’s crater lake, whereas to the south steam vents and dust swimming pools bubble away.
Krafla has erupted round 30 instances within the final 1,000 years, and most just lately within the mid-Eighties.
Bjorn Por Guðmundsson leads me to a grassy hillside. He’s working a group of worldwide scientists who plan to drill into Krafla’s magma.
“We’re standing on the spot the place we’re going to drill,” he says.
The Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) intends to advance the understanding of how magma, or molten rock, behaves underground.
That data might assist scientists forecast the chance of eruptions and push geothermal power to new frontiers, by tapping into an especially sizzling and probably limitless supply of volcano energy.
Beginning in 2026 the KMT group will start drilling the primary of two boreholes to create a singular underground magma observatory, round 2.1km (1.3 miles) underneath the bottom.
“It is like our moonshot. It is going to rework a number of issues,” says Yan Lavelle, a professor of vulcanology on the Ludvigs-Maximllian College in Munich, and who heads KMT’s science committee.
Volcanic exercise is normally monitored by instruments like seismometers. However not like lava on the floor, we don’t know very a lot concerning the magma under floor, explains Prof Lavelle.
“We would wish to instrument the magma so we will actually take heed to the heartbeat of the earth,” he provides.
Strain and temperature sensors will likely be positioned into the molten rock. “These are the 2 key parameters we have to probe, to have the ability to inform forward of time what’s occurring to the magma,” he says.
All over the world an estimated 800 million folks stay inside 100km of hazardous lively volcanoes. The researchers hope their work may also help save lives and cash.
Iceland has 33 lively volcano methods, and sits on the rift the place the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates pull aside.
Most just lately, a wave of eight eruptions within the Reykanes peninsula has broken infrastructure and upended lives in the neighborhood of Grindavik.
Mr Guðmundsson additionally factors to Eyjafjallajökull, which brought on havoc in 2010 when an ash cloud brought on over 100,000 flight cancellations, costing £3bn ($3.95bn).
“If we’d been higher capable of predict that eruption, it might have saved some huge cash,” he says.
KMT’s second borehole will develop a test-bed for a brand new era of geothermal energy stations, which exploit magma’s excessive temperature.
“Magma are extraordinarily energetic. They’re the warmth supply that energy the hydrothermal methods that results in geothermal power. Why not go to the supply?” asks Prof Lavelle.
Some 65% of Iceland’s electrical energy and 85% of family heating, comes from geothermal, which faucets sizzling fluids deep underground, as a supply of warmth to drive generators and generate electrical energy.
Within the valley under, the Krafla energy plant provides sizzling water and electrical energy to about 30,000 properties.
“The plan is to drill simply in need of the magma itself, probably poke it just a little bit,” says Bjarni Pálsson with a wry smile.
“The geothermal useful resource is situated simply above the magma physique, and we consider that’s round 500-600C,” says Mr Pálsson, the manager director of geothermal growth at nationwide energy supplier, Landsvirkjun.
Magma could be very exhausting to find underground, however in 2009 Icelandic engineers made an opportunity discovery.
They’d deliberate to make a 4.5km deep borehole and extract extraordinarily sizzling fluids, however the drill abruptly stopped because it intercepted surprisingly shallow magma.
“We had been completely not anticipating to hit magma at solely 2.1km depth,” says Mr Pálsson.
Encountering magma is uncommon and has solely occurred right here, Kenya and Hawaii.
Superheated steam measuring a recording-breaking 452°C shot up, whereas the chamber was an estimated 900°C.
Dramatic video exhibits billowing smoke and steam. Acute warmth and corrosion finally destroyed the nicely.
“This nicely produced about 10 instances extra [energy] than the common nicely on this location,” says Mr Pálsson.
Simply two of those might provide the identical power as the facility plant’s 22 wells, he notes. “There’s an apparent recreation changer.”
Greater than 600 geothermal energy crops are discovered worldwide, and tons of extra are deliberate, amid rising demand for round the clock low carbon power. These wells are usually round 2.5km deep, and deal with temperatures under 350°C.
Personal firms and analysis groups in a number of international locations are additionally working in direction of extra superior and ultra-deep geothermal, known as super-hot rock, the place temperatures exceed 400°C at depths of 5 to 15km.
Reaching deeper and far hotter, warmth reserves is the “Holy Grail”, says Rosalind Archer, the dean of Griffith College, and former director of the Geothermal Institute in New Zealand.
It’s the upper power density that’s so promising, she explains, as every borehole can produce 5 to 10 instances extra energy than customary geothermal wells.
“You’ve got acquired New Zealand, Japan and Mexico all wanting, however KMT is the closest one to getting drill bit within the floor,” she says. “It is not simple and it is not essentially low cost to get began.”
Drilling into this excessive setting will likely be technically difficult, and requires particular supplies.
Prof Lavelle is assured it’s potential. Excessive temperatures are additionally present in jet engines, metallurgy and the nuclear business, he says.
“Now we have to discover new supplies and extra corrosion resistant alloys,” says Sigrun Nanna Karlsdottir, a professor of business and mechanical engineering on the College of Iceland.
Inside a lab, her group of researchers are testing supplies to resist excessive warmth, stress and corrosive gases. Geothermal wells are normally constructed with carbon metal, she explains, however that rapidly loses power when temperatures exceed 200°C.
“We’re specializing in excessive grade nickel alloys and in addition titanium alloys,” she says.
Drilling into volcanic magma sounds probably dangerous, however Mr Guðmundsson thinks in any other case.
“We don’t consider that sticking a needle into an enormous magma chamber goes to create an explosive impact,” he asserts.
“This occurred in 2009, they usually came upon that they’d most likely accomplished this earlier than with out even figuring out it. We consider it’s protected.”
Different dangers additionally have to be thought of when drilling into the earth like poisonous gases and inflicting earthquakes, says Prof Archer. “However the geological setting in Iceland makes that most unlikely.”
The work will take years, however might carry superior forecasting and supercharged volcano energy.
“I believe the entire geothermal world are watching the KMT undertaking,” says Prof Archer. “It’s probably fairly transformative.”