Getty ImagesI’m located in one of the world’s volcanic hotspots, northeast Iceland, near Krafla volcano.
Not far away, I could see the edge of Crater Lake, while steam vents and mud pools bubbled to the south.
Krafla volcano has erupted about 30 times in the past 1,000 years, most recently in the mid-1980s.
Bjorn Por Guðmundsson takes me to a grassy hillside. He leads a team of international scientists planning to drill into Krafla’s magma.
“We’re standing right where we’re going to drill,” he said.
The Krafla Magma Tester (KMT) is designed to improve understanding of how magma, or molten rock, behaves underground.
This knowledge could help scientists predict the risk of volcanic eruptions and push geothermal energy into new frontiers by harnessing extremely hot and potentially unlimited volcanic energy.
Starting in 2026, the KMT team will begin drilling the first of two boreholes to create a unique underground magma observatory approximately 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) underground.
“This is like our moon landing. This will change a lot of things,” said Yan Lavelle, a professor of volcanology at Ludwig-Maximlien University in Munich and chairman of the KMT’s science committee.
Volcanic activity is often monitored through tools such as seismometers. But Professor Lavelle explained that unlike surface lava, we don’t know much about underground magma.
“We want to examine the magma so we can actually hear the pulse of the Earth,” he added.
Pressure and temperature sensors will be placed in the lava. “Those are two key parameters that we need to detect in order to be able to tell in advance what’s happening to the magma,” he said.
Around the world, an estimated 800 million people live within 100 kilometers of dangerous active volcanoes. The researchers hope their work will help save lives and money.
Iceland has 33 active volcanic systems and is located on the rift valley that separates the Eurasian and North American plates.
The latest wave of eight Volcanic eruptions on the Recanes Peninsula Destroying infrastructure and disrupting lives in the community of Grindavik.
Mr Guðmundsson also pointed out the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, This wreaked havoc in 2010 The volcanic ash cloud caused more than 100,000 flight cancellations and caused 3 billion pounds ($3.95 billion) in losses.
“If we could predict volcanic eruptions better, we could save a lot of money,” he said.
KMT’s second borehole will develop a test bed for a new generation of geothermal power stations that exploit the extreme temperatures of magma.
“Magmas are very dynamic. They are the source of heat that powers hydrothermal systems that produce geothermal energy. Why not go to the source?” asked Professor Lavelle.
About 65% of Iceland’s electricity and 85% of its home heating come from geothermal, which uses hot fluids deep underground as a heat source to drive turbines and generate electricity.
In the valley below, the Krafla power plant provides hot water and electricity to approximately 30,000 homes.
“The plan is to drill near the magma and maybe poke it a little bit,” Bjarni Parson said with a wry smile.
“The geothermal resources are located above a magma body and we believe the temperature is around 500-600 degrees Celsius,” said Mr Pálsson, executive director of geothermal development at state power supplier Landsvirkjun.
Magma is difficult to locate underground, but in 2009 Icelandic engineers stumbled upon it.
They had planned to drill a 4.5-kilometer-deep borehole and extract the extremely hot fluids, but drilling was suddenly halted when it intercepted surprisingly shallow magma.
“We definitely did not expect to hit magma at a depth of only 2.1 kilometers,” Mr Pálsson said.
Lava encounters are rare and only occur here, in Kenya and Hawaii.
The temperature of the superheated steam reached a record 452°C, while the temperature in the combustion chamber was estimated at 900°C.
Dramatic video shows billows of smoke and steam. Severe heat and corrosion eventually destroyed the well.
“This well produces about 10 times the original [energy] Higher than the average well in the area,” Mr. Pálsson said.
He noted that just two of them could provide the same energy as the power plant’s 22 wells. “This is a clear game changer.”
As demand for round-the-clock, low-carbon energy continues to grow, more than 600 geothermal power plants have been discovered around the world, with hundreds more planned. These wells are typically about 2.5 kilometers deep and can handle temperatures below 350°C.
Private companies and research teams in some countries are also working to develop more advanced ultra-deep geothermal resources, called epithermal rocks, whose temperatures exceed 400°C at depths of 5 to 15 kilometers.
Rosalind Archer, dean of Griffith University and former director of the New Zealand Geothermal Institute, said the thermal reserves of reaching deeper, hotter places were the “holy grail”.
She explained that higher energy density is the most promising because each borehole can generate five to 10 times more electricity than a standard geothermal well.
“New Zealand, Japan and Mexico are all looking, but KMT is the country closest to getting a drill bit into the ground,” she said. “It’s not easy, and it’s not necessarily cheap to get started.”
Drilling in this extreme environment is technically challenging and requires special materials.
Professor Ravel believes this is possible. Extreme temperatures also occur in the jet engine, metallurgical and nuclear industries, he said.
“We have to explore new materials and alloys that are more resistant to corrosion,” said Sigrun Nanna Karlsdottir, professor of industrial and mechanical engineering at the University of Iceland.
Inside the lab, her research team is testing whether materials can withstand extreme heat, pressure and corrosive gases. She explained that geothermal wells are typically constructed from carbon steel, but carbon steel quickly loses its strength when temperatures exceed 200°C.
“We specialize in high-grade nickel alloys and titanium alloys,” she said.
Drilling into volcanic lava sounds potentially risky, but Mr Gudmundsson doesn’t think so.
“We don’t believe that sticking a needle into a giant magma chamber would have an explosive effect,” he asserts.
“This happened in 2009 and they found out they may have done this before and didn’t even know it. We believe it is safe.”
Professor Archer said there were other risks to consider when drilling into the earth, such as toxic gases and causing earthquakes. “But Iceland’s geology makes this unlikely.”
The work will take years but could lead to advanced predictions and supercharged volcanic power generation.
“I think the whole geothermal world is looking at the KMT project,” Professor Archer said. “This could be quite transformative.”
