Abstract:

Ground-truthing of the topmost subsurface structure of active volcanoes has been achieved by drilling in geothermal areas, to study and utilize the geothermal resource. There have also been few cases around the world of un-intentional encounter with magma during drilling, including at least twice with rhyolitic magma at Krafla volcano. The Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) project has the vision to become a world-class international in-situ magma laboratory with access to the magma-rock-hydrothermal boundary through wells, available for advanced studies and experiments. The science question that can be addressed include: (i) Is there convection in the Krafla rhyolitic magma body intersected by the IDDP-1 drillhole in 2009, that brings heat from the deeper basaltic part of the magmatic system directly into the geothermal system. (ii) What is the origin of the thin layer at Krafla that separated molten rhyolite and country rock. (iii) How takes heat transfer take place across the magma-hydrothermal transition zone. (iv) Is it possible to put instruments into magma and the near-magma environment to advance volcano monitoring. These and other science questions of the KMT project, that is in a preparatory stage, will be presented and discussed.