| Title: | All about Scandinavia |
| Moderator: | TLE::SAVAGE |
| Created: | Wed Dec 11 1985 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Jun 03 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 603 |
| Total number of notes: | 4325 |
From an article in New Scientist by Michael Cross:
This month [March] contruction work is expected to begin on a project
to drill a hole five kilometers deep through the bedrock under central
Sweden. The site is the Siljan Ring, Europe's largest meteor crater.
It is 60 kilometers in diameter and was formed about 350 million
years ago.
The aim is to test a theory, put forward in 1980 by Professor Thomas
Gold of Cornell University, that vast quantities of hydrocarbon
gas have accumulated in reservoirs in the Earth's crust since the
planet's early history.
In 1983, the Swedish state power company, Vattenfall, became
sufficiently interested in this possiblity to put up one third of
the cost of the project. Sweden has no reserves of fossil fuels;
since a referendum decision in 1980 to phase out nuclear power,
Swedish energy planners have been looking for new sources.
During the past two years, geologists have conducted seismic tests
and collected rock samples, all of which, according to the project's
manager, Tord Lindbo, indicate that a reservoir of gas might exist.
Among Lindbo's financial backers is the U.S. Gas Research Institute.
The Swedish government so far has not contributed financially to
the drilling project's budget of �15 million.
If all goes well, drilling will begin in June. Results (good or
bad) are expected to be known by late fall.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67.1 | GYCSC1::ORA | This space intentionally not left blank | Fri Mar 14 1986 03:17 | 4 | |
This is very interesting... I read an article in 'Der Spiegel' about
this. In fact, I got the impression that they've started drilling
already.
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| 67.2 | The black gunk from 3667 fathoms | TLE::SAVAGE | Neil, @Spit Brook | Fri Jul 15 1988 10:45 | 28 |
From the "Science and the Citizen" department in the August 1988 issue
of Scientific American comes news that "extremely smelly" black
sludge-like stuff was recovered from 22,000 feet (6700 meters), from
inside the hollow drill pipe.
But what is that stuff?
The gunk "has the consistency of modeling clay and incorporates what
seem to be molecules of biological origin. The stuff consists of
fine-grained magnetite and "biomarker" organic commpounds identical
with those found in oil from nearby surface seeps. Additionally,
"increasing quantities of of various hydrocarbon gases were found as
the drilling progressed, as well as hydrogen and helium."
Thomas Gold, of course, accepts this as evidence in support of his
theory of the deep-seated bacterial origin of oil and gas. In the
"pungent stink" he sees the possibilty of an analogy with bacteria
associated with deep ocean vents.
Critics counter that the smelly black stuff is an artifact of
lubricants put down the experimental drill shaft. Alan Jeffery of the
Global Geochemistry Corporation has suggested that the biomarker
compounds might come from oils near the surface that leached down and
accumulated in the drill hole.
Depite the controversy and financial difficulties, the Swedish State
Power Authority has decided to resume drilling - to go down to about
24,500 feet (7500 meters).
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| 67.3 | Came up empty, except for surface contamination | MLTVAX::SAVAGE | Neil @ Spit Brook | Fri Mar 23 1990 14:32 | 9 |
The 9 March 1990 issue of SCIENCE, Vol. 247, Nr. 4947 has a 'Research
News' article on this project entitled "When a Radical Experiment Goes
Bust" (beginning at page 1177). It is accompanied by an 'box' entitled
"Is the Siljan Hole Completely Dry?"
Apparently, Thomas Gold is the only one insisting that the answer is
"no". Vattenfall has poured some $40 million into this project with
nothing much to show for it. Vattenfall has since sold its interest in
the project to another concern - Dala something.
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