Puna Geothermal Venture Pumping Water Into Volcano?

The reason Hawaiian volcanos are mild and slow flowing and not explosive like Krakatoa is suppose to be because they are made of basalt material and don't have a lot of water in them. Geologists please correct me if I'm wrong. This I got from a college geology class many years ago. But Krakatoa was especially explosive because it was actually a small island and had lots of water.
People were buying land on the Island of Hawaii despite the volcano and are seeing their land values decrease because of Puna Geothermal Venture, an electrical power plant that produces power by pumping water (and waste toxins) into the ground, making an artificial geyser. It is supposed to be illegal to pump waste materials into the ground but they are apparently getting around it. The site is several miles from the volcano (although very close to residential areas), so one would think that they are quite safe in doing so. Except for one little problem. The terra firma of the entire island is made up of lava tubes from previous eruptions and the risk of pumping water into one that might still be intact and able to flow back to the main lava supply is a definite possibility. It would be possible to test this idea if someone put some marker chemicals into the water Puna Geothermal Venture is pumping and then testing the steam where the volcano is giving off steam.

pubs.usgs.gov...

www.punageothermalventure.com...

reply to post by m khan


Do you have a source relating to the pumping of "waste toxins" into hot spots.
Are you suggesting that industrial waste toxins are being disposed of this way ?

Puna Geothermal does not inject water (or toxic waste) into the ground to produce electricity. It taps existing pockets of geothermal water (the entire volcano area is riddled with natural steam vents). The water and gases are then injected back to where they originally came from. In effect, the only thing removed from the Earth is heat. The only thing added is...nothing. It's a closed system, renewable resource.

Once geothermal waters reach the surface, the steam is sent to the power plant and used to drive generators to produce electricity, and the brine and gases are re-injected back into the injection zone below the water table.

www.punageothermalventure.com...


All lava is basalt. The reason Hawaiian volcanoes are not explosive is because the lava is relatively fluid and has low levels of gasses. As the link you provided explains, the few explosive eruptions have been caused by the sudden influx of large amounts of water in a pressurized situation.

Property values on Hawaii have been dropping just like they have everywhere else and for the same reason.

[edit on 11/2/2009 by Phage]

I am a student working on a doctorate in geochemical volcanology and I can tell you that explosivity can be caused by water but that is not the reason that basalt is not explosive. The explosivity can be found to be dictated by the make up of the melt. The more silicon in the melt the more viscous it is, this means that silicic lava called rhyolite can bind up much more gas than basalt and therefore contains far more pressure to be erupted when the melt can no longer hold the gas. As far as I know all lavas need water and other volatile gasses to form because it lowers the melting point and dissolves the rock.

When a magma source encounters a body of water it creates a large explosion called a phreatic eruption. These kind of eruptions can occur at any volcano with a water source above it or around it and are usually very violent eruptions.

The next time Yellowstone erupts there will most likely be a phreatic eruption in the early phases of its activity because of the massive Yellowstone Lake that sits atop part of the calderas rim. With Yellowstone obviously this would be a small matter in the heat of a super-eruption event.

reply to post by Phage


They pump the water and toxic waste back into the ground. It is not legal in Hawaii to pump toxic waste into the ground. Forgive me, I will have to find the quote, but I saw it a while back. Hawaii is made up of lave tubes that get crushed down by the weight of other lave tubes. It is quite possible that pumping water into the ground near Leilani Estates will find it's way back to the main lava source and cause explosive eruptions not to mentioning endangering the lives of the people who live nearby.It is totally irresponsible for the Puna Geothermic Venture to mess with this stuff. The people in the neighborhoods nearby should sue them.
Property values went down a lot more than for the rest of Hawaii. A lot in Leilani being sold for $26,000 went down to under 3,000. I know cause I got burned.

[edit on 20-11-2009 by m khan]

[edit on 20-11-2009 by m khan]

reply to post by m khan

The same material that comes out of the geothermal source gets pumped back into the same geothermal source. The same water, the same gases.

No water is added to the geothermal source. If the water in the source were going to migrate it would do so without the help of Puna Geothermal.

Puna Geothermal has been in operation for 16 years. The environmental aspects of it operations are monitored by an independent party (TEC, Inc.)
www.tecinc.com...

But maybe you're right. Maybe they should just burn more oil to produce the power they need.

reply to post by m khan

I can find no indication that the land values at Leilani Estates have dropped any more than elsewhere on Hawaii but whoever took $3,000 for their lot probably had something else going on. Are you sure it wasn't a tax foreclosure?
www.localhawaiirealestate.com...


But if you blame the drop in prices on Puna Geothermal, how do explain that the peak of the market for Leilani occurred from July 2005 to June 2006?
activerain.com...

PGV had been in full operation at that time. I think the only thing to blame is the economy. You can take your pick of things to blame that disaster on, but Puna Geothermal isn't one of them. No doubt anyone who bought at the peak has seen a big drop. They are not alone.

[edit on 11/20/2009 by Phage]