Post
Topic
Board Project Development
Re: Why Geothermal Energy is simply better for mining
by
Adam4Eve
on 01/03/2019, 00:38:52 UTC
I think is is important to remember there are literally thousands of earthquakes daily, the majority of which you will not feel (have little impact on anything). The evaluation of an earthquake works on a Richter Scale, which is logarithmic such that a magnitude 2 earthquake is much different than a magnitude 3, although they both do sound scary, there isn't much harm until you get to about a magnitude 5 or larger, which is extremely rare.
Lets say that those plant of yours wont trigger out those quakes but as i have read that this is located on the ring of fire.There are really thousand of earthquakes but most likely happen on
seabed.It do really give out no or less impact but since this place is on the ring of fire then there would be always the possibility of Magnitude 5 or higher quakes to happen.

I think there is a strong misconception in the public's view about earthquakes and geothermal energy.

To be clear, large earthquakes from traditional geothermal power plants is extremely rare, despite the power plants being along the Ring of Fire.

Please remember that the Geothermal industry knows that this is a problem, and potential earthquake hazards and how to handle them are mitigated in the planning phase, before the power plants are built. The hazards mentioned were not from traditional geothermal plant, but from a new geothermal technology called "Enhanced Geothermal Systems". The method was created in 2008, and those first plants started closely after in 2009. The articles cited are outdated, as this was from over 10-years, when little was known about the earthquake hazards of Enhanced Geothermal Systems. Modern day scientists know better and do not drill into faults.

To give a real world example as to how well the industry plans power plants, the Geysers Geothermal field has been around for about 70 years, and is located along the ring of fire.

Here is an article about the field:
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/why-are-there-so-many-earthquakes-geysers-area-northern-california?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

This is a sentence taken straight from the article, written by the U.S. Government (USGS)

"To date, the largest quake recorded at The Geysers is approximately M4.5. It is possible that a magnitude 5 could occur, but larger earthquakes are thought to be unlikely. In order for a larger earthquake to occur, it is necessary that a large fault exist. For example, the 1906 magnitude (M) 7.8 San Francisco earthquake ruptured nearly 300 miles of the San Andreas Fault. At The Geysers no such continuous fault is known to exist. Rather, there are numerous small fractures in the rock located near the many steam and injection wells."

If you don't drill on top of the fault, you should be good to go.