Essay --

A volcano erupts, and lava spews everywhere, burning every living thing it touches. By the time the eruption is over, not a single blade of grass is still living in the area. Volcanoes and their magma have always been viewed as chaotic, uncontrollable objects. But what if humans could use them for their own advantage? Geothermal energy is energy from Earth’s heat. Geothermal energy has some advantages over other types of energy. One is that it is available over 90% of the time compared to coal plants only getting 75%. That means that while many power plants, like solar plants and wind turbines, and even coal plants can’t be producing energy anywhere near all of the time, geothermal energy plants can be working nearly all of the time. Recently, scientists drilling into the Krafla volcano in Ireland, led by Gumunder Omar Friedleifsson accidentally discovered that magma can be a useful way to get geothermal energy. This happened when the scientists found magma 7,000 feet into the earth. They soon realized that the water heating the drill they were using, and the extremely hot magma made a superheated steam tha could be chemically altered to power a turbine. After the discovery, scientists estimated that geothermal energy from magma could produce 25 MW of power, which is 5 times more t han current geothermal energy wells makeInterestingly enough, this more powerful energy would also be cheaper, because conventional geothermal energy needs expensive perforated piping down the entire hole, while geothermal energy from magma would only need it for about 100 meters. Also, unlike fossil fuels, another cheap energy source, geothermal energy is renewable, and it does not harm the environment a lot. This one accidental discovery the scient... ...many of the island country's economies, because they wouldn’t have to import a lot of fossil fuels for their energy. This would help the whole world in general, and could keep them from going any farther into debt. Geothermal energy from magma will be extremely useful, especially to countries with a lot of volcanoes that are in debt. Scientists have discovered that magma can be used to make geothermal energy. This would be very useful, as it is much more efficient than conventional geothermal energy, and it is better for the environment than fossil fuels, and it is renewable. There are, however, some bad parts about the energy. The plants could cause minor earthquakes, and could be destroyed by the volcano erupting. However, the advantages of geothermal energy from magma outweigh the risks, and it probably will become a very important energy type in the near future.