Iceland Deep Drilling Project

The 49th Volume of the journal Geothermics, released in January 2014, is entirely dedicated to the first well of the IDDP. The borehole of this well was unintentionally drilled into a magma reservoir in 2009. The hole was initially planned to drill down to hot rock below , but drilling was ceased when the drill struck magma at only deep. This same occurrence has only been recorded once, in a Hawaiian geothermal well in 2007, but in that instance, it resulted in the sealing and abandonment of the hole. In IDDP-1 the decision was made to continue the experimental well, and upon inserting cold water into the well, which was over . The resultant well was the first operational Magma-EGS, and was at the time the most powerful geothermal well ever drilled. While not producing electricity on the grid, it was calculated that the output of the well would have been sufficient to produce 36 MW of electricity. The well was eventually shut down after a valve failure occurred while attempting to connect the output to a central generator. == Second Well (continuation of an old borehole), IDDP-2 ==

Five years before IDDP-1 was made, a borehole was drilled at Reykjanesvirkjun. It was named RN-15 or REY H015 (Reykjanes-15) and is just one of many geothermal boreholes drilled in the Reykjanes peninsula since 1956. It reached a maximum depth of 2.5 km (1.55 mi). It was always known that RN-15 could be deepened, after a good result of the drilling. About 10 years later, IDDP decided to continue drilling under the project name IDDP-2. The plan was to reach a maximum depth of 5 km (3.11 mi) before the end of 2016, making it by far the deepest borehole in Iceland. Scientists were hoping to reach a temperature of , which would be the hottest blast of any hole in the world, breaking the former record of the IDDP-1 Krafla borehole. Drilling began on August 11, 2016, and was completed 167 days later on January 25, 2017. The final depth was , with a temperature of and fluid pressure of . Core samples were taken, showing rocks at the bottom that appeared to be permeable, and fluids in supercritical conditions were successfully reached, accomplishing all of the main objectives of the drilling operation. ==See also==