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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1982)
Magma, thermal source of energy By Sandy Johnstone Of the Emerald First in a continuing series highlighting the research and goals of University professors. Geophysicist Harve Waff may not be burying his head in the sanjj, but he is looking under ground for the answers to, Oregon’s energy future Waff, a University professor, ' is trying to find existing magma chambers and geothermal deposits beneath the Cascade Mountains. "Oregon is one area with the potential for geothermal re sources because of the Cas cades and other volcanoes," he says. "Oregon has the potential for clean, inexpensive energy over a very long time period " The amount of thermal energy available in the upper six kilometers of the earth is es timated by the U S Geological Survey to be at least 800 years worth at current consumption rates Waff estimates at least 15 percent of the total could be housed in jDregon, which is more than the known oil re serves in #ie entire United States "Oregon happens to be one of the exciting parts of the country not/," he says "Our research started out to be pure ly scientific, but now we see its potential for development because it can be so big for Oregon Currently. Waff's research aims at understanding the ther mal structure beneath the Oregon Cascades. Over the past three years, he has been accumulating the equipment needed to make measurements of the thermal structure He built part of the SQUID magne tometer himself to save money (the SQUID would cost private industry about $400,000), and he spent 350 hours (about six weeks) troqbleshooting to find the problems, which all turned University geophysicist taps underground potential ^ NUl' -vjHn Photo by Dave Kao Geophysicist Harve Waff displays the SQUID magnetometer which measures thermal structures. t out to be factory related "The SQUID is possibly the most sensitive instrument man ever built,'1 he says Why is such a sensitive tool needed? i "You can't tell from the sur face where the heat is because the rains flush out the heat from tfie top 1,200 feet in the Cas cades," he says "The system senses minute magnetic fields which we are able to induce into electrically conducting bodies beneath the ground " Magma chambers conduct electricity much better than other parts of the earth As far as we can tell, electrical signals are the best way yet devised to detect them," he says They will use the system to find magma fields and convert the data into a map of the elec trical structure under the ground It will take them two to five years to cover most of the po tential areas in Oregon and Wa shington alone, he estimates Then, he thinks it will take an other two to five years to do fine-scale measurements if a company would want to drill Using current technology, after a magma chamber has been located, a closed pipe with a smaller pipe inside of it is inserted into the ground down to the magma chamber The pipe is cooled down with water on the perimeter of the inside pipe Then the heat of the mag ma chamber changes the water into steam and provides heat with very little pollution. It is also possible to use an open pipe which will form a bubble in the magma chamber and work the same way as the ciosed pipe system, except it allows a few pollutants in the air Funding for the project comes from three National Science Foundation grants totaling between $140,000 and $150,000 per year However, Waff says funding for energy related projects has been cut by the federal government so he is hoping for money from private companies “I have not tried to take an active posture because I don't want to put the cart before the ox," says Waff "I want to have a firm foundation and demon strate it works well first If the first hole or two (drilled in the Cascades) are successful then there will be a much better pos sibility of getting support (from the government or private in dustry)." Instant passport pictures. I Flattering passport pictures, in full color, in just 60 seconds. 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