Drilling into Molten Rock at Kilauea Iki

Abstract

The Sandia Magma Energy Research Project is assessing the scientific feasibility of extracting energy directly from buried circulating magma resources. One of the tasks of the project is the study of geophysical measuring systems to located and fine buried molten rock bodies. To verify the results of a molten rock sensing experiment performed at Kilauea Iki lava lake, it is necessary to drill a series of holes through the solid upper crust and through the molten zone at that location. Thirteen holes have been drilled at Kilauea Iki; eleven by other groups and two by Sandia. The results achieved during the drilling of the two Sandia holes have indicated that the molten zone in Kilauea Iki is not a simple, relatively homogenous fluid body as expected. The encountering of an unexpected, unknown rigid obstruction 2.5 ft below the crust/melt interface has led to the conceptual development of a drilling system intended to have the capability to drill through a hot, rigid obstruction while the drill stem is immersed in the molten rock. The concept will be field tested at Kilauea Iki in the summer of 1978.