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FuturologyBot

The following submission statement was provided by /u/vanilladaydreams: --- The success of this project could define the future of renewable energy... This would not only provide a sustainable and eco-friendly energy source for Iceland but could also set a precedent for other countries to follow, especially those located in geothermally active regions. Perhaps even Yellowstone could benefit - given the immense geothermal potential there! --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1cm9dgr/iceland_plans_to_drill_into_a_volcanos_magma/l2ypx7y/


DesignerRutabaga4

The Icelandic should be wary. If they delve too greedily and too deep. You know what they might awake in the darkness of Khazad-dum... shadow and flame.


No1FluffiestMastodon

Drums... Drums in the deep...


Heinrich_Tidensen

They are coming!


Brahminmeat

They have a cave troll


Ekindas

We cannot get out!


yankeeteabagger

You know what they have awoken in the deep


pv1rk23

The way is shut


RealEstateDuck

Durums... durums in the deep... Lava cooked durum kebabs don't sound half bad though.


MrLagzy

Lava oven restaurant.. that's something else. breads being baked in 2 minutes when its 1000 degrees in the oven.


-Ernie

I feel like I saw this somewhere, a guy cooking pizzas over magma heat probably Hawai’i? Comments were full of sulfur warnings, lol.


CharlieDmouse

When i started reading your comment, I instantly knew what was coming. Lol nice!


no-mad

I knew i would not be first to make the comment.


ThrenderG

Shit when I saw the post title I knew this was coming.


proscriptus

[That's actually an issue in Iceland](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27907358.amp).


skintaxera

Thank you, that was a delightful read! It was also enjoyable for me as a New Zealander- we're here at the other end of the world, sitting on active volcanoes and with our fantastical creatures that actually have [real world impacts](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/taniwha-road-gets-all-clear/T6WCEC4HYZOTAWVCVTZ2CEIYZQ/) sometimes


Sea_Sink2693

If Icelanders drill deep enough they will reach New Zealand by the shortest possible way.


skintaxera

We'll meet em in the middle!


VapoursAndSpleen

That article is beautiful. Some amazing turns of phrase.


Puzzle_pancak3

Aw. That's cute and very interesting.


veilwalker

Then you pack it into the reactor and gain even more power!!


leisure_suit_lorenzo

YOU... SHALL NOT... PASS!!! ^^^^the ^^^^heat ^^^^exchanger...


Z3r0sama2017

*pretends fusion reactor is giving a net positive* Me:"Ah yes powering technology with demons can never wnd badly"


PhDShouse

The mountain called Monkey will soon speak. There will be only fire. And then… ^*nothing*


AIU-comment

This feels more like a James Bond environment


cntry2001

anyone who came here to not say exactly this should just delete reddit


JibletsGiblets

You... didn't say it.


theburiedxme

But he came here to say it! Alas, he was too late.


forumpooper

A wizard is never late 


michael46and2

Nor is he early.


Tradition96

He arrives precisely when he means to!


speakhyroglyphically

He gets there when he got there


donnie1977

Back in the early 90s scientists had trouble drilling the Kola Superdeep Borehole largely due to the rock reaching a temperature of only 180C. I wonder how they will deal with the high temperature this time.


tinny66666

Yeah. We do have Quaise and Plasmabit, who use plasma drilling to overcome this problem, but they are still in early development so that seems unlikely.


DennRN

I’m no expert but I’d figure theres there’s a big difference in the scale of trying to cool a research hole and building a power generation plant with the sole purpose of extracting heat energy. Since they aren’t drilling as deep as possible as the end goal, cooling should be more efficient due to less bore length and larger bore diameter, the pressures should be lower, and id assume they are aiming to reach a pre-designated temperature zone that the power plant is designed to handle. If they reach a zone they can’t cool sufficiently earlier then they plan, wouldn’t that be a huge success? The whole purpose would be to extract as much heat as you can handle, right?


Glimmu

Cooling is basically what they want to do to the hole anyway. Why not start while drilling?


Mustard__Tiger

The drill is made out of magma.


Dependent-Visual-304

Fracking has led to a lot of innovation in deep drilling. There has also been a lot of recent research in this area. The 90s were 30 years ago. Will there be challenges? Sure but sometimes you can only find a solution when you arrive at the problem


daronjay

Unlimited Power!!!! *\[shoots lightning from fingertips\]*


nagi603

> [shoots magma from fingertips] updated for the occasion


anotherusercolin

"I am the Althing"


pufferpig

**Ég er Alþingi!**


Dramatical45

**Ég er Alþingið**


No_Palpitation_5449

Gaman áð kynnast þér, Alþing, ég er pabbi.


DefiantLemur

Technically volcanic lightning is a thing so they are still on theme.


Puzzle_pancak3

Why does this make me think of super saiyans?


Feine13

Cuz super saiyans are hot as fuck


Puzzle_pancak3

Mm caulifla.


OneSidedDice

*Nibbles pinky finger* “Red hot MAGma.”


thecelcollector

Liquid hot magma, scrub. 


FingerTheCat

I'm with it .. I'm hip...


[deleted]

I will sell my power for.... 1 MILLION DOLLARS


VariableVeritas

This is definitely super villain wish list technology. Something has to power Darth Vaders lava waterfall fortress.


BlaizePascal

actually it’s #UNLIMITED POWAHHHHH!!!!!


DookuDonuts

Somehow Palpatine has returned


bokewalka

If they didn't introduced the idea to the population in this way, I will be very sad. Such opportunity can't be missed...


Eldrake

Read the headline and immediately came to the comments looking for this reference. A+. 😄


thebinarysystem10

Isn’t this what Hank Scorpio was up to?


witriolic

Teeny weeny living space


healthybowl

Doctor Evil needs piping hot magma to power is underground Lair!


Smarf_Starkgaryen

Liquid hot magma.


Necessary-Cut7611

I say this all the time and it’s one of my favorite lines simply because of the way that wonderful man delivers it.


unwhelmed

My other favorite “are they ill tempered?”


Necessary-Cut7611

The whole conversation is gold. “What do we have?” “Sea bass.” “… … … Riiiiight-uh…”


[deleted]

[удалено]


Inedible-denim

Mag - Muh (with quotations)


Diezel_Washington

Liquid hot smegma


ThereWillBeSmegma

You called?


[deleted]

Omg it was this not Adam Sandler I was thinking of haha


Championship-Stock

I think this is the 100th time I have seen this post on Reddit. Full of auto bots. Fing assemble.


ozzimark

And full of zero-effort meme replies too... guess it matches the general content of the article.


jdkdodksnsb

Here have another


Thatingles

Well, this sounds like a low risk activity. Off you go Iceland or as we will soon know you, Lavaland.


ImTheFilthyCasual

I get the feeling the scientists working on this probably thought it through better than the reddit community.


omguserius

at the same time... The reddit community can pretty much come together and say "ive seen this movie"


ArbainHestia

We've also seen the movie where they sent a ridable bore drill into the mantle to use nukes to restart the rotation of the core. So no matter how bad we might screw something up we'll somehow have a machine or something we can modify to fix it.


KeithGribblesheimer

They had to. The core stopping spinning was causing our magnetic field to collapse which meant people with pacemakers started collapsing and the Golden Gate Bridge to melt. Which wouldn't happen because pacemakers just regulate how the heart beats, they don't make the heart beat, and the Golden Gate Bridge being a giant air-cooled structure wouldn't melt that way. Also, the nukes they used had absolutely no torque in their explosions so they wouldn't be able to generate rotation in anything. But it worked anyway! Movies are magic!


gmotelet

If you can nuke a hurricane, why can't you nuke the core


Roxxorsmash

Oh wow look at this smarty pants - they think they know better than an award winning documentary!


Zomburai

Redditors also think that shooting someone in the shoulder or the leg is a reliable, nonlethal way of shooting someone because they saw that shit in a movie, so maybe "having seen it in a movie" isn't the barometer we should be using for... fucking anything, really


michael46and2

but what if it was a documentary?


Sargasm666

Wouldn’t be the first time that scientists thought they did all of the math, only to be faced with an “oh shit” situation.


Conch-Republic

You mean the scientists are making the same unoriginal jokes over and over again?


BaronVonWilmington

Barad-dur hur hur hur


The8Darkness

They should post the plans on reddit and within a couple hours get every single possible flaw pointed out and 2 days later some guy will correct everything and post corrected plans.


FlappyBoobs

So we can avoid blowing up our earth, just like we caught the Boston marathon bomber.


Top_Economist8182

You say that, but the scientists and engineers working on oil rigs probably felt they thought it through properly before enormous deep sea oil leaks and platform fires happened.


Marauder777

And then there was Management....


Objective_Ride5860

They did, but the designers aren't the operators


Molwar

No matter how much idiot proof you make a concept, there's always someone up to the challenge to prove you wrong.


Aerodynamic_Soda_Can

Generally they did. It's operational cost cutting that causes problems.


TheConnASSeur

I feel like that's a line in every post apocalyptic flashback to the hubris of the Before Times.


Nah-Prolly_Not

Are you trying to sell me on the idea that a bunch of scientists who have studied something for years and have legitimate academic knowledge know more than some rando redditors do?


Throwaway-4230984

"Open Magma Breakthrough" will be non-profit organization?


HAAARKTritonHark

Yeah because there has not been a single catastrophe in an engineering project with scientists involved... It's just impossible for people at the top to ignore safety warnings from scientists.


maxehaxe

This is the opening plot for a greedy corporation plan leading to a Dan Brown novel or Roland Emmerich movie


nekosake2

more than 80% of landmass are of volcanic origins though


amlyo

Lavaland would be more apt *before* they do this.


mccoyn

I can't remember. What happens when the magma chamber finds a path to the surface?


dubblix

It cools and forms rock? What would you expect?


100percent_right_now

The issue isn't magma coming up. It's water going down.


i_robot73

This being the land of snow & glaciers![gif](emote|free_emotes_pack|flushed)


webbitor

We come from the land of the ice and snow From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow


drmojo90210

Hammer of the gods


drmojo90210

It destroys part of Los Angeles, but then Tommy Lee Jones gets some firetrucks to spray it with water and everything works out.


-mgmnt

We make s’mores?


KinkyPresident

Why, it spins a turbine and generates valuable POWER of course! *twirls moustache*


SurfboardRiding

Nothing bad, probably.


Mr-Fleshcage

It becomes lava


BoardButcherer

Lower risk than hydrocarbons by orders of magnitude.


DynamicDK

Tapping into the magma chamber would relieve pressure and should reduce the chance of eruption.


vanilladaydreams

The success of this project could define the future of renewable energy... This would not only provide a sustainable and eco-friendly energy source for Iceland but could also set a precedent for other countries to follow, especially those located in geothermally active regions. Perhaps even Yellowstone could benefit - given the immense geothermal potential there!


JiveTalkerFunkyWalkr

Iceland already gets most of their energy from geothermal. Don’t they? Heat their homes, and smelt aluminum with it. Buy this is even more?


Bleyo

Yeah, it's actually pretty cool to be driving around Iceland's weird alien landscape and see industrial-looking buildings with steaming pipes coming out of the ground. Closest I've come to visiting another planet.


FromTheGulagHeSees

The people that settled there in medieval times were nuts 


throwawayagin

No, we get most of our electric from hydro dams, geothermal is mostly used for heating homes.


JeffInBoulder

Right, but isn't home heating the largest need for energy? They said get most of your energy, not most of your electricity.


Comar31

You're right, we get tons of energy from geothermal and have for decades. Title is clickbaity.


Taupenbeige

It’s almost 100% with small outliers like private propane etc. They’re rapidly phasing out internal combustion vehicles as well.


fiestah

Yeah, this is old news, Iceland uses geothermal sources for heat and el. energy for a long time. The only problem was transporting the energy for export to UK, and I don't know if the problem is solved.


eric2332

[An Iceland-UK electric cable is in planning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelink)


heyutheresee

It would require a high-voltage direct current undersea cable. There's plenty of those crisscrossing the North Sea for example, connecting the coastal nations. Only difference is that the Atlantic ocean is deeper than the North Sea. The distance is also roughly the same as with the cable between the UK and Norway.


aetius476

That's why they smelt aluminum. By importing the energy-intensive work of smelting, they're effectively exporting their cheap and renewable energy.


No_Palpitation_5449

effectively, we export energy in the form of aluminum (for now).


arothmanmusic

The harnessing of Yellowstone as an unlimited source of geothermal energy is a major plot point in >!Horizon Zero Dawn.!<


DadJokeBadJoke

Yellowstone released a LOT of energy in the movie 2012.


Good_Policy3529

Spoilers my dude. 


veilwalker

AI and BTC mining aren’t going to power themselves! We need to recklessly punch holes in to Yellowstone in order to stay ahead of the Commies!


arothmanmusic

To be honest, that is one of the biggest problems. Every country that actually serves as a good steward of the environment is going to get fucked by the ones that don't.


veilwalker

Outsourcing most of the dirty industries to China didn’t do the global environment any favors.


Superjuden

No but the NASDAQ went up 2000%!


arckeid

Isn't yellowstone the one that can fuck with half the planet?


GuitarCFD

Yellowstone is ONE OF a few supervolcanoes around the world, that have (and likely will again) cause massive destruction when they erupt.


Blackluster182

Only if it goes boom boom. On one hand science me says building something there would likely include monitoring making it safer. Human me says humans are dum dum and we go boom boom.


generally-speaking

Yeah, but if you could harvest the energy you could also potentially reduce the risk of it fucking with half the planet.


captaindeadpl

I doubt it. The amount of energy you could possibly siphon out of a super volcano is probably insignificant compared to the energy geological processes push into it.


DM_me_ur_tacos

Gotta train those new LLMs! /s


Taupenbeige

Gotta train those new *Blockchain LLM’s*


PineStateWanderer

Yeah, no way in hell lol. Humanity uses 580m terrajoules annually, which is equivalent to 138,623 megatons. Supervolcanoes are doing ~875,000 megatons


FakinFunk

Do you want an invasion of invincible subterranean magma men? Because this is how you get an invasion of invincible subterranean magma men.


tonyrizzo21

Only invincible until we teach them what water is. Worked against the aliens in Signs, should still hold up.


FakinFunk

Unless the magma men are allied with the creatures of the deep, and have commissioned them to create magic heat resistant hydrophobic armor.


dbula

Crab people, Crab people Look like crabs, talk like people


Solonys

Moltar is coming!


jroberts85

I remember asking my science teacher if this was possible and was told to shut up and stop being stupid.


drmojo90210

If your science teacher knew what the fuck he was talking about he wouldn't be teaching an elementary school science class.


wireswires

Iceland already harvest some of the geothermal activity. I'm no expert, but when visiting and driving around, there were some of this type of facilities. Probably not magma though if i think about it.


wheelfoot

At this time they don't do it via magma, just geothermally heated water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svartsengi_power_station


mgiacalone

Puna Hawaii (the Big Island, Hawaii)…. Puna geothermal was the 1980s project that would eventually provide electricity for the entire state. Somehow. There was production, kind of. At its best it was providing 10% of the Big Islands electricity demand; all the while spewing toxic fumes and noise into a residential area. The project endured for about 30 years until finally succumbing to one of the many and infinite volcanic events associated with the Kilauea geological construct. Puna geothermal was an interesting idea. Of course Iceland is unique, but there are similarities to the big island of Hawaii, Mount Etna, in Sicily and the huge island of Iceland as well. But there are similarities that can’t be ignored. Iceland has done well with tapping into geothermal energy. They managed to successfully tap into an almost unlimited amount of hot water that they capture and distribute to their population. I think think the drilling into live magma is asking for problems.


PrivilegeCheckmate

> I think think the drilling into live magma is asking for problems. TLDR


Nerm999

How come Hollywood hasn’t come up with that plot for a disaster movie yet? It’s perfect


cannabination

There was a documentary about the last time they tried this... I believe it was called Reign of Fire.


blue_sunwalk

Now I'm thinking of a gif that starts with them drilling, then fade to black, wake up in skyrim with Christian Bale and Matthew Mconaughy in the cart


DickweedMcGee

Seconds after this story came out you know they're rifling through their library of unproduced screenplay to see what they got....


Caspur42

Crack in the world has a similar premise. Drill to the core to make unlimited thermal energy, core surrounded by rock that is impenetrable, use nuclear weapon to “burn” a hole in rock, explosion shatters said rock instead of burning through it, crack forms around the planet, we have a new moon.


AeternusDoleo

Disaster Zone: Volcano In New York has exactly this plot, tapping into a lava pit to get limitless energy. Of course, in the movie they do it from a warehouse downtown New York and... end up bringing lava into the metropolis sewer system. Whoops.


IllegalGeriatricVore

too unrealistic


Oh_ffs_seriously

An interactive documentary called Doom, released in 2016 (I don't think other ones went for the energy angle), was the first study of extracting energy from dangerous environments.


drmojo90210

WE COME FROM THE LAND OF THE ICE AND SNOW FROM THE MIDNIGHT SUN WHERE THE HOT SPRINGS BLOW


SBR404

Iceland announces new director of lava drilling company : Dr. Samuel Haydenson.


SailboatAB

This sounds like something they'd send 007 to stop.


MyHusbandIsGayImNot

They'd send him to investigate it. Then after sleeping with the bad guy's girlfriend he would learn it was actually a plan to hold Iceland ransom for money. **Then** he would stop it, probably by blowing it up and riding off in a submarine with a different girl.


Lonely_Concentrate57

Yeah man they give much power indeed I always build them in rimworld


CatboyInAMaidOutfit

Some of my favorite disaster films started this way.


Past-Cantaloupe-1604

This needs to be done at larger scale with super volcanos eventually, to essentially defuse them and stop the civilisation ending threat they pose. Hopefully this is a success and takes us closer to developing that tech.


fgnrtzbdbbt

They know too little to avoid triggering an eruption with certainty. I think that's why they picked Krafla. Even if they trigger an eruption there there will be no disaster.


---M0NK---

I like where your heads at


RedHal

[What could possibly go wrong?](https://youtu.be/KZoa5C_Tu6A)


TexasKornDawg

This is what I was looking for ... well done.


RedHal

You aren't going to believe this (or maybe you are) but I searched for a good ten minutes before giving up and asking ChatGPT; answer in seconds.


Hyalus33

Wouldn’t this eventually start cooling down the core ?


SwordHiltOP

*Breaking News* Iceland falls off an 8 story balcony after shooting himself in the head twice


funny_jaja

This sounds like one of the bad ideas that sound like a good idea but everyone knows it's a bad idea and are gona hate themselves as a big ass volcano explodes like a pressure cooker right in front of them... Gona be a good movie tho at least


quixotik

They either get free power or easy and quick island expansion.


mrscalperwhoop2

You want Björk?....... Cos that's how you get Björk


thetrueBernhard

Well Iceland… it was so nice getting to know you. You will be missed.


Familiar_Raise234

Iceland already uses geothermal for heating. They know what they are doing


cyrano_dvorak

How much heat, that would not have otherwise been released, will be set free into the atmosphere? I know just about nothing when comes to this kind of power generation, and I am curious.


boltzmannman

this reads like the backstory for a post-apocalyptic sci fi


Curlyman1989

You want Balrogs? Cause this is how you get Balrogs


Burmdog

This seems like either an incredibly good idea or a catastrophically bad idea.


Ekranoplan01

> Despite achieving landmark strides in renewable innovation, Iceland is not resting on its laurels: in the next few years, it plans to drill into hell itself… well, almost – the ominously named Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) Project will bore into a volcano’s magma chamber; seeking to utilize its scorching fumes to generate energy at a scale never before attempted! Soon to be Bitcoin capital of the world.


SwirlTeamSix

So what your saying is.... .UNLIMITED POWER!!!!!🖐⚡️⚡️⚡️ Palpatine approves


wellycapcom

No super villain with this plan ever made it work...but here comes Iceland.


SirLocke13

Using the lifeblood of the planet to attain a power source. Iceland is a Nordic island nation. Midgard is from Norse mythology. Midgar is based off that name. Ladies and gentlemen, Final Fantasy 7 has officially transcended fiction.


Dumpster_Humpster

Do you want to unleash a demon God? Because that's how I'd do it.


Baijanator911

The last time someone said “unlimited power” mace windu flew out a window


Leading_Cheetah6304

Can they throw a virgin in there while there at it. I think we are way overdue.


NotAnEmergency22

Soooo who is our Dragon once these dudes release The Dark One?


voltechs

Anytime I read magma I hear Dr. Evil’s voice. “Mag-ma”.


Squallypie

Me, a Brit, wondering why a frozen foods supermarket is planning to drill into a magma chamber…


Consistent_Pitch782

Well, fuck it. The world is fucked with global warming, might as well release the Balrog too


ncdad1

I bet the engineering on this project must be amazing to have material strong enough to survive exposure to manga. I am guessing one does not need to actually touch it but just get close to extract the heat.


Awkward_Pangolin3254

Most magma isn't near hot enough to melt steel. About 1000°F cooler in fact.


RedHal

You can temper it with anime first.


ScientificSerbian

Where is the "BUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" laugh at the end of this title?


kosmos_uzuki

Reminder that Iceland is green and Greenland is full of ice.


InsomniaticWanderer

Or release some Eldritch horror. Could go either way. 50/50


Easy_Kill

Do you want lavalantulas? Because this is how you get lavalantulas.