Artificial geothermal reservoirs in hot volcanic rock

Abstract

S>Some recent results from the Los Alamos program in which hydraulic fracturing is used for the recovery of geothermal energy are discussed. The location is about 4 kilometers west and south of the ring fault of the enormous Jemez Caldera in the northcentral part of New Mexico. It is shown that geothermal energy may be extracted from hot rock that does not contain circulating hot water or steam and is relatively impermeable. A fluid is pumped at high pressure into an isolated section of a wellbore. If the well is cased the pipe in this pressurized region is perforated as it is in the petroleum industry, so that the pressure may be applied to the rock, cracking it. A second well is drilled a few hundred feet away from the first. Cold water is injected through the first pipe, circulates through the crack, and hot water returns to the surface through the second pipe. Results are described and circumstances are discussed under which artiflcial geothermal reservoirs might be created in the basaltic rock of Hawaii. (MCW)