Looks strange. Did they really prove that the project caused the quakes? How come they didn't prove that prior to the 60 million investment?
I showed that the geothermal gradient has a value close or equal to keep the density constant. Compression caused by rocks above is compensated by the thermal expansion due to the geothermal gradient. It was the result of an investigation into something else which I never succeeded in proving. I adjusted the calculation and I put it here: http://djk.se/physics/Thermal%20expansion%20compensates%20weight%20compression%20in%20the%20Earths%20crust.pdf The case is that it is not easy to compress a solid sphere excepts isotropically. That is on the other hand not how gravity cause compression. Imagine a purely vertical compression. That would lead to excessive rock since the same circumference would have to be arranged with a smaller radius. So it assumable that the globe isn't compressed at all. With gravity present and unavoidable only temperature increase can be seen as compensating. Cooling will make the rock shrink and exactly how is determined by how the cooling is done specifically its intensity and distribution in time and space. So there might be a way to get the heat without getting quakes. How did they decide too cool the way they did? And how come the contraction comes stepwise in form of quakes and not continuously? I would say it looks like Euler buckling of rods. There should be a three dimensional equivalent, right? I can't see how a Swiss decision can cancel US plans. They should make an independent investigation. David David Jonsson, Sweden, phone callto:+46703000370 On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Terry Blanton <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2009121101nspe&r=4310813-241a > > "Switzerland Permanently Ends Controversial Geothermal Project. > The New York Times (12/11, A14, Glanz) reports, "A $60 million project > to extract renewable energy from the hot bedrock deep beneath Basel, > Switzerland, was shut down permanently on Thursday after a government > study" concluded that "earthquakes generated by the project were > likely to do millions of dollars in damage each year." The study's > conclusions "are a serious blow to the hopes...that advanced > geothermal energy could substantially cut the world's use of > emissions-causing fossil fuels." The report also comes as the US > Energy Department prepares "its own review of the safety of a closely > related project, by a start-up company called AltaRock Energy, in the > hills north of San Francisco," seen as "the Obama administration's > first major test of advanced geothermal energy." > > The AP (12/11) reports, "Switzerland has ended [the] > pioneering geothermal project...three years after the deep drilling > into the ground caused a series of earthquakes." The head of Basel's > environmental and economic department, Christoph Brutschin, said > Thursday that "continuing the project in Basel is impossible because > it would trigger up to 30 earthquakes in the first phase of drilling > alone." Project designer Markus Haering "has been charged with > property damage and will have to stand trial in a Basel court next > week. He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison." His > company, Geopower, "has paid around 9 million Swiss francs ($9 > million) in compensation for cracked walls and similar damage on > nearby houses and other buildings." > > <end> >
