The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) is among the partners leading an international team of volcanologists and engineers in an innovative project, called Krafla Magma Drilling Project, to sample deep magma from Krafla Volcano, Iceland.
Objective of the research: to build a permanent infrastructure for the study and experimentation directly on the magma chamber in the depths of the Icelandic volcano, creating the first magmatological observatory in the world. The presence of deep magma from Krafla Volcano was accidentally disclosed by the company Landsvirkjun Power Co., partner of the group, during the research activities of supercritical fluids for geothermal exploitation.
During this summer (2015), INGV researchers will conduct experiments at the Krafla volcano in order to define, through geophysical and geochemical measurements and prospecting, the state of the volcano before the drilling operations and attempt to obtain images of the target magma chamber of the drilling, scheduled for summer 2016.
The research group aims to obtain direct information on the characteristics of magma before an eruption, thus being able to test decades of theoretical models and speculations on the state of magma at depth. The study will allow an advanced understanding of the conditions that precede a volcanic eruption and an evaluation of the possibility of extracting energy in safe conditions at similar volcanoes, such as Campi Flegrei.
The project will be funded by the prestigious consortium International Continental Drilling Program, the same one who studied the San Andreas fault, in California, and who is currently collaborating with INGV for the scientific drilling study at Campi Flegrei with the project Campi Flegrei Deep Drilling Project (CFDDP).
The Krafla volcano consists of a caldera, i.e. a large area with a diameter of about 10 km sunk following the occurrence of eruptions that rapidly emptied surface magma chambers, weakening the structural asset of the system and causing its gravitational collapse. From 1975 to 1984 the volcano was the site of intense eruptive activity, characterized by the emission of abundant lava flows, initially along systems of fractures and subsequently from specific areas on which scoria cones formed. Today the volcano has notable similarities with the Campi Flegrei caldera, located on the western edge of Naples; in both cases it is a caldera system, site of abundant hydrothermal circulation and subject to intrusions of magmas which form pockets a few kilometers deep (around 2 km for Krafla, probably around 3-4 km for Campi Flegrei ).