Project Details
Projekt
Constraining the response of magma to drilling at Krafla, Iceland
Subject Area
Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry
Geology
Geophysics
Geology
Geophysics
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 560559274
Geothermal drilling to depths in the Earth's crust that are close to where magma is stored can result in the utilisation of high-enthalpy supercritical fluids. This new green 'magma heat' is a target of the ICDP-funded Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) consortium. Our new project here will solve some of the key initial challenges of drilling into or near to magma by constraining how magma responds physically and chemically to the decompression and cooling associated with drilling boreholes. As with KMT, our project's case-study focus is Krafla volcano in Iceland. The key objectives are: (1) To experimentally constrain the response of magma to the induced cooling and decompression of drilling, using the experimental laboratories at LMU, Munich; (2) To quantify and model the rheological response of magma to drilling; and (3) Based on (1) and (2), to develop a new multi-scale mathematical model for magma dynamics that captures effects of local bubble growth, explosive fragmentation events, and diffusive loss of volatiles at the system-scale. These objectives will be delivered through three targeted and detailed work packages, and via the support of a new PhD student, and the PI-team, as well as the collaborators involved in the project. Therefore, we will mentor and train the next generation of scientists in the geothermal and natural sciences sectors. Taken together, the objectives will result in a step-change in our understanding of magma dynamics, as well as facilitating safe strategies to drilling close to or into magma, avoiding explosive behaviour that is all too common when magmas decompress. The outcomes of this project go beyond geothermal drilling and have key implications for our understanding of volcanic eruptions in general, which, like drilling, involve the decompression and cooling of magma as it ascends through the Earth's crust. Therefore, while the core goals of the project are associated with KMT, there are down-stream beneficiaries that include volcanologists and hazard mitigation organisations around the world who aim to better understand how magma behaves in the run up to eruptions in general.
DFG Programme
Infrastructure Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 1006:
Infrastructure area - International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
Co-Investigator
Dr. Fabian Wadsworth
