physically and technologically, regardless of the amount of money and time, to dig a mine shaft to tap the heat of the mantle to turn water into steam if so give an estimate of how deep it would be in meters say on a contenent such as north america
2006-08-28 10:23:47 · 8 answers · asked by first_gholam 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
You do not have to dig that far to harness the heat. The are able to drill to depths where water will turn to steam and (by looping the system) use the power to either heat water or run a turbine.
2006-08-28 14:09:01 · answer #1 · answered by kpizura 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Geothermal energy, using the heat of the earth's core to heat water, is nothing new. Admittedly, current technology is focused in areas with geothermal activity, and not something that you'd randomly want to do. If you were to drill a hole that deep, you might risk destablizing the earth or making a mistake and creating a magma flow, also know as a volcano. Though the crust is 20-70km deep, I don't think you'd need to go that far for enough heat. That is probably a better question, how far would you need to bore down to reach sufficient temperature. A little over 12 km is the current record. According to the scientific drilling site below on WIKIPEDIA, temperatures increase only 15 degrees Celcius for each kilometer, so at 12km you doubtfully would have enough heat.
Basically to summarize, unless you are near an area where the molten rock is near the surface, simply picking any old spot and drilling as deep as you can is not technically possible. Not to mention the earth stability and economic issues.
2006-08-28 18:37:55 · answer #2 · answered by Mack Man 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you could drill down to the mantle, there would be so much pressure that hot magma would burst out of the well. It would be much more practical to use geothermal generation near a volcano where the magma is at a much lower pressure.
2006-08-28 18:06:24 · answer #3 · answered by Duluth06ChE 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
my guess is the best place to build such a device would be near yellow stone. boiling water is what makes old faithfull go.
you would need 2 tunnals one for steam to excape and the other to let condensate return conected at the bottom
2 problems would be erotion and colapses
2006-08-28 21:59:07 · answer #4 · answered by specal k 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They tried that about 100 years ago in N America, but ran ito oil first, which was a much more valuable source of energy. And portable, too.......
2006-08-28 17:37:21 · answer #5 · answered by Steve 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Its already been done.
http://www.darvill.clara.net/altenerg/geothermal.htm
2006-08-28 20:08:32 · answer #6 · answered by STEVEN F 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Alot of pipe and diamond.
2006-08-28 17:32:01 · answer #7 · answered by Harry J 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it depends where your at ..the crust has different thickness
2006-08-28 17:29:26 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋