The world's first artificial volcano

While exploring underground rock layers in Hawaii, the workers of an American company accidentally hit magma and their drill created a volcano.

Magma erupted from a borehole of workers in the geothermal power plant Puna Geothermal Venture in Hawaii, USA.Photo: National Geographic.

'This is an unprecedented discovery in history,' said Bruce Marsh, a volcanic researcher at Johns Hopkins University (USA). He said that normally scientists can only learn volcanoes through solid magma of long-lived volcanoes or molten lava from active volcanoes.

Witnessing magma in its natural environment (underground) is always the dream of every volcanic specialist. So Bruce says that this event for geologists is like finding a living dinosaur for paleontologists.

The geothermal energy exploration project was conducted to serve a geothermal power plant (producing electricity through underground heat) called Puna Geothermal Venture, owned by Ormart Technologies. Experts from the plant choose Kilauea volcano, the most frequently used fire in the world, continuously spraying lava since 1983.

Workers discovered something unusual in the Puna Geothermal Venture area when drilling to a depth of 2.5 km. Then they saw the magma spraying as high as 8 meters out of the pipe that they stuffed into the ground. After touching the ground, magma solidifies into a transparent substance due to contact with groundwater.

Scientists find that magma here is made up of dacite, a stone that can form granite, not basalt. 'If we drill basalt, this event will not be a big surprise,' said William Teplow, a consultant at the exploration project.

For many years the scientific community believed that dacite stones could be separated from basalt magma to form granite, but they never thought that they would witness it in natural conditions. With temperatures of up to 1,050 degrees Celsius, the magma at Kilauea volcano is a source of high quality heat for electricity production. Experts claim that magma reserves are so large that people can use them to study science and produce electricity.

'Our drill hole is like a needle, and this magma mine is like an elephant,' said Lucien Bronicki, technical director of Ormart Technologies.