Geothermal wells 'can operate as magma laboratories'

On-site laboratories could allow magma to be studied in areas where geothermal wells are being drilled.

Geothermal energy relies on the heat from the core of the Earth to be drawn to the surface, allowing it to warm properties or, in industrial installations, to rotate turbines and create electricity in the way other power stations do so.

However, a recent well being drilled in Iceland had to be abandoned when liquid-hot magma began to flow into it through a fissure in its side, more than 2 km below the surface.

Now scientists from the University of California - Riverside suggest such wells could serve as below-Earth data sources for use in laboratories in the study of volcanic activity.

Wilfred Elders, a professor emeritus of geology in the university's Department of Earth Sciences, has seen magma encroach a well only once before, but notes the opportunities presented when it occurs.

He says: "While the magma flow interrupted our project, it gave us a unique opportunity to study the magma and test a very hot geothermal system as an energy source."