Geothermal heat can provide:
- superheated steam from deep inside the earth that comes in contact with pockets of magma relatively near the thin surface crust
- superheated water that is pumped down to come into contact with molten magma itself.
In the 1950s, project Moho attempted to drill very deep through the earth’s crust to reach its upper mantle. It has since then been taken over by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Although scientists differ in their opinions about why the earth’s interior remains so hot, it appears it will remain that way for billions of years.
What the USA immediately needs is less talk and more action on the ways and means of getting and using the energy sources we now have. This is not a time for political posturing on who will get what amounts of money to solve the global-warming-energy-crunch situation. Nor is it enough to stash away barrels of surplus oil, or horde natural gas.
Our country’s present economic down-turn can be solved overnight by investing in research and the facilities that will produce clean coal; useable fuel from vegitation; electricity from ocean currents and tides; wind turbines; solar power; and, in particular, geothermal powerplants.
I would hope that government officials, politicians, and everyone that should be involved in the energy crisis — which means you and me — would read Who Turned Out the Lights. This book is factual but not boring. Its suggestions for energy consumption are meaningful. Its fifteen chapters deliver a potent message: we need to act now. The same type of creative ingenuity that brought home the badly crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft in a matter of days can surely design and implement an energy program before planet earth is too crippled to call home.Powered by Sidelines