Don’t these people look where they’re drilling?

One of the conclusions that came out of the Lusi debate at AAPG was that poor choice of drilling location was at least as big a factor in the disaster than anything that was (or wasn’t done) during the drilling. Now, via the BBC, comes this report from the AGU conference*:

Drillers looking for geothermal energy in Hawaii have inadvertently put a well right into a magma chamber.

Molten rock pushed back up the borehole several metres before solidifying, making it perfectly safe to study.

Erm – seismic survey, anyone? I mean, it’s not that finding molten rock beneath the ground in Hawaii is exactly a shock. Fortunately, rather than a scene from a bad disaster movie, there’s apparently a scientific payoff:

Magma specialist Bruce Marsh says it will allow scientists to observe directly how granites are made.

“This is unprecedented; this is the first time a magma has been found in its natural habitat,” the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, professor told BBC News.
“Before, all we had to deal with were lava flows; but they are the end of a magma’s life. They’re lying there on the surface, they’ve de-gassed. It’s not the natural habitat.

“It’s the difference between looking at dinosaur bones in a museum and seeing a real, living dinosaur roaming out in the field.”

Here’s the abstract of the presentation. I love the description of the discovery as being ‘during routine commercial drilling operations’.
*Don’t mention the conference! Or at least, the fact that I’m not at it. Again.