Rome - A project to drill deep into the heart of a "supervolcano" in southern Italy has finally received the green light, despite claims that the drilling would put the population of Naples at risk of small earthquakes or an explosion. Yesterday, Italian news agency ANSA quoted project coordinator Giuseppe De Natale of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology as saying that the office of Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris has approved the drilling of a pilot hole 500 meters deep.

The Campi Flegrei Deep Drilling Project was set up by an international collaboration of scientists to assess the risks posed by the Campi Flegrei caldera, a geological formation just a few kilometers to the west of Naples that formed over thousands of years following the collapse of several volcanoes. Researchers believe that if it erupted, Campi Flegrei could have global repercussions, potentially killing millions of people and having a major effect on the climate, but that such massive eruptions are extremely rare.

The project's organizers originally intended to bore a 4-kilometer-deep well in the area of the caldera late in 2009, but the plan was put on hold by then-mayor Rosa Russo Iervolino after scientists expressed concerns about the risks.

Among the critics was Benedetto De Vivo, a geochemist at the University of Naples, who told Science in 2010that the drilling might cause seismic activity or generate an explosion if it allowed the high-pressure supercritical fluids expected to exist at depths of about 3 kilometers or more to come into contact with magma inside the caldera. "Nobody can say how bad this explosion would be, but it could put at risk some of the surrounding population," he said. De Vivo added that he didn't understand why the well was to be located on the grounds of the former Bagnoli steel mill, on the western outskirts of Naples, and not farther west. (De Vivo did not state that the study might trigger an eruption of the supervolcano.)

Collaboration member Ulrich Harms of the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam said at the time that if the drilling is done in a controlled way, "there is no risk to the public." He pointed out that many multikilometer wells have been drilled around the world in order to extract geothermal energy, and that these have not caused explosions. He believes the project makes scientific sense: "It's not clear if there is a volcanic risk, but it cannot be excluded, and this is why it is better to get more of an idea."

De Natale told ANSA that drilling the pilot well should start "within a few months," the time needed to "reorganize with the company that won the contract," and that a second well 3.5 kilometers deep should then follow. (The mayor's office was not available for comment today.)

De Natale said that information obtained from sensors placed inside the wells will help to understand the "bradyseism" - the rising and falling of the Earth's surface resulting from the movement of magma inside a caldera - occurring in the Campi Flegrei areaand to find out whether there is a connection between this phenomenon and volcanic eruptions. Additionally, he added, the study should provide information that could help to extract geothermal energy from the volcano in the future.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Seems like if there were ANY chance
of the drilling causing a problem they
would not do it.
But, that would be common sense.

lol.. ya never know till ya try, right?... i'm not sure if this would cause a problem or not... but the pressures volcanoes generate are very high, and could cause a major problem...

And of course all politicians, scientists, and corporations that are looking to exploit a natural energy source for eventual profit are always using common sense as their driving motivation.

Drilling holes into the earth over a mile deep is perfectly safe, just ask BP and Haliburton. Besides they're are not dealing with oil under pressure like in the Gulf. They are drilling into molten rock with a man made steel drill bit. What could possibly go wrong. After all they have spent over 3 years spelling out every possible contract detail with the company that will do it for the least amount of money.

RUN RUN RUN!


YAWN.

There were a lot of skeptics, both when:
1. Columbus set sails to India the opposite direction to where it lay; and
2. When Icarus spread his wings to fly to the Sun, the wings that were glued to his arms, and right away jumping off a high cliff.

The skeptics were wrong in the first instance. They were right dead on in the second instance.

Skeptics mean nothing. They just keep on skepting. If we listened to the skeptics, we would be worse off than if we listened to the doomsayers and/or to the bible thumpers.

Mess with the drill bit and see what happens...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6293757.stm

Drilling blamed for Java mud leak

The mud leak has submerged several villages
A mud leak that has displaced thousands of Indonesians was most probably caused by drilling for gas, a scientific study into the disaster concludes.
The British-based scientists believe the drilling in East Java ruptured pressurised limestone rock, allowing water and mud to rise to the surface.

They warn thousands of cubic metres of mud a day could continue to spew out for months, if not years, to come.

An Indonesian minister has insisted the eruption is a natural disaster.

Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie - whose family firm controls the drilling firm involved, Lapindo Brantas - said it was caused by the devastating earthquake near Yogyakarta on 27 May.

His comments echo those made by Lapindo Brantas, which has denied a drilling accident was to blame.

Hot mud and gas have been spewing from the ground in Sidoarjo since early June, and show little sign of stopping.

The mud flow, made up of what is known locally as Lusi, has submerged several villages in the surrounding area and displaced more than 10,000 people.

Satellite images

The scientific survey, published in February's issue of the Geological Society of America's GSA Today, warns that between 7,000 and 150,000 cubic metres of mud a day could be spilled for months or years to come.

It says an area of some 10 sq km (3.9 sq miles) affected by the flow "will probably sag", and will be uninhabitable for years.


The mud flow has continued to spread since it erupted in May
The report also warns that the area around the mud hole could suffer a "dramatic collapse" to form a crater.

The team of scientists at Durham University analysed satellite images of the area for the study.

"It is standard industry procedure that this kind of drilling requires the use of steel casing to support the borehole, to protect against the pressure of fluids such as water, oil or gas," team leader Richard Davies said.

"In the case of Lusi, a pressured limestone rock containing water - a water aquifer - was drilled while the lower part of the borehole was exposed and not protected by casing.

"As a result, rocks fractured and a mix of mud and water worked its way to the surface. Our research brings to the conclusion that the incident was most probably the result of drilling."

The Indonesian government has been working to stem the flow with a network of dams and by channelling some of it into the sea, but with little success so far.

Well, chit.

hee, hee. The skeptics were right.

I was not laughing at the plight of the villagers. I am sorry for them. I laughed at this thought sequence: "Soufie, mud is not chit."

Then I thought immediately how in Hungarian "chit" is "szar", and mud is "sar".

Much like the very apparent etimological convergence in English of "chit" and "sit". And of course the etimolgoically equivalent in the closest old relative of English, in German: "Setzen", and "scheissen."

You know how a language influences culture and individual thinking. I've been wondering on-and-off about the significance of how "sit-chit" popped into the minds of the ancient Germanic language speakers, and how "mud-chit" into the minds of ancient Hungarian speakers.

no no no

that would probably just sap energy away

and keep the volcano from erupting


lol

i guess when Italy is under 100 feet of ash and lava, they will ask themselves "was that a good idea?"