EARTH SCIENCES - Notable Research and Discoveries Part 7

1 earth ScienceS 10s Boise, Idaho, develops the first geothermal district heating system, in which water from hot springs is piped into some of the city’s buildings. 10 Working in Larderello in central Italy, the Italian chemist and inventor Piero Ginori Conti (1865– 1939) builds the first electric generator running from geothermal power. 10 Iceland begins the widespread use of geothermal energy to heat buildings. 10 Pacific Gas and Electric Company opens the first geothermal power station in the United States at The Geysers in California. 10s The U.S. DOE initiates a series of geothermal re-search projects in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico and establishes a testing facility at Fenton Hill, New Mexico. 10s Geothermal power stations appear in Hawaii, Ne-vada, and Utah. 00 An interdisciplinary panel of scientists and engi-neers, organized by MIT, issues a report, The Fu-ture of Geothermal Energy, which recommends investment in enhanced geothermal systems. Bruce D. Green and R. Gerald Nix of NREL, issue a report proposing research on geothermal systems, based on the findings of a workshop in Golden, Colorado, on May 16, 2006. 00 An Australian company Geodynamics, Ltd., com-pletes drilling a well at Cooper Basin in South Aus-traliaandbeginsdevelopmentofageothermalpow-er station using hot fractured rock technology. Geothermal energy—a Furnace beneath the Soil 1 FuRtHER RESouRCES Print and internet Boyle, Godfrey, ed. Renewable Energy, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 2004. After an initial chapter introducing renewable en-ergy, the book describes solar energy and technologies, energy from biological sources, hydroelectricity, tidal energy, wind energy, wave energy, and geothermal energy. California Energy Commission. “Geothermal Energy.” Available on-line. URL: http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter11.html. Accessed May 4, 2009. California generates more electricity from geothermal energy than any other state. This Web page, which is one of the chapters in the California Energy Commission publica-tion “The Energy Story,” contains a concise description of geother-mal energy. Deseret News. “Geothermal Energy Development Gathers Steam.” Oc-tober 7, 2008. Available online. URL: http://www.publicutilities. utah.gov/news/geothermalenergydevelopmentgatherssteam.pdf. Accessed May 4, 2009. This short article sounds an optimistic note on geothermal energy. Geothermal Education Ofice. “Geothermal Energy.” Available online. URL: http://geothermal.marin.org/. Accessed May 4, 2009. The Geo-thermal Education Ofice, a nonprofit organization in California to promoteawarenessofgeothermalresources,offersalotofinformation on the Web. Topics include geothermal facts and a glossary of terms, a slide show, general information about energy resources, and maps showing the worldwide use and application of geothermal energy. Gibilisco, Stan. Alternative Energy Demystified. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. In addition to explaining the concept of energy and energy transformations, this book covers a broad range of energy technologies. The author’s classification of geothermal power as an “exotic” means of electricity generation is perhaps not the best word choice, but readers can compare and contrast a variety of fossil fuel and alternative energy sources. Google. “Google.org Invests More Than $10 Million in Breakthrough Geothermal Energy Technology.” News release, August 19, 2008. 1 earth ScienceS Available online. URL: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/press-rel/20080819_egs.html. Accessed May 4, 2009. Google announces a significant investment in geothermal energy. Green, Bruce D., and R. Gerald Nix. “Geothermal—the Energy under Our Feet.” Available online. URL: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/ geothermal/pdfs/40665.pdf. Accessed May 4, 2009. This technical report is based on a workshop held at Golden, Colorado, on May 16, 2006, sponsored by NREL. Web users with slow download rates should be warned that the size of this file is about 2.8 megabytes. Kennedy, B. Mack, and Matthijs C. van Soest. “Flow of Mantle Fluids through the Ductile Lower Crust: Helium Isotope Trends.” Science 318 (November 30, 2007): 1,433–1,436. The researchers report on their measurements of helium isotopes ratios in springs, wells, and vents in a broad area covering western North America. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The Future of Geothermal Energy.” Available online. URL: http://geothermal.inel.gov/publi-cations/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf. Accessed May 4, 2009. MIT’s geothermal energy report that was discussed in this chapter is available on the Web. But Web users with slow download rates should be warned that the size of this file is about 14 megabytes. ScienceDaily. “A Step toward Inexpensive Geothermal Energy.” News release, March 15, 2007. Available online. URL: http://www. sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070313110634.htm. Accessed May 4, 2009. Dina Lopez, a researcher at Ohio University, reports her findings on geothermal stations in El Salvador and ways to im-prove eficiency. Smil, Vaclav. Energies. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999. This book offers a general view of energy, describing its many forms, its scien-tific properties, and the manner in which it is used. Swissinfo.ch. “Man-Made Tremor Shakes Basel.” December 9, 2006. Available online. URL: http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/news/ science_technology/Man_made_tremor_shakes_Basel.html?siteSec t=514&sid=7334248&cKey=116583965 8000&ty=st. Accessed May 4, 2009. Geothermal drilling is suspected to play a role in the minor earthquake that struck Basel, Switzerland, on December 8, 2006. Union of Concerned Scientists. “How Geothermal Energy Works.” Avail-able online. URL: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/technology_ Geothermal energy—a Furnace beneath the Soil 1 and_impacts/energy_technologies/how-geothermal-energy-works.html. Accessed May 4, 2009. This introduction to geothermal energy contains three sections: the geothermal resource, how geo-thermal energy is captured, and the future of geothermal energy. United States Department of Energy. “Geothermal Technologies Program.” Available online. URL: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/ geothermal/. Accessed May 4, 2009. The Web resource describing DOE’s program to enhance geothermal applications includes basic information, maps, photographs, data on current exploration and research, and a brief history of the subject. 5 WATER MANAGEMENT— CONSERVING AN ESSENTIAL RESOURCE Water management is not a new problem. Ancient Rome was a bustling, crowded city, housing more than a million people. A city this size is large even by modern standards, and for the ancient world, a city with a million inhabitants presented numerous sanitary and engineering challenges. One of the most important concerns was freshwater. The Tiber, a river that flows through Rome, supplied plenty of water during the city’s early years, but as the population grew, the Tiber became inadequate as well as pollut-ed. Wells and rainwater were also insuficient, so the Romans had to carry water into the city from springs and other distant sources. To accomplish this task eficiently, Roman engineers began building an ingenious system of long channels or conduits—aqueducts—in 312 b.c.e. The idea behind an aqueduct is simple. An aqueduct is made of stone or concrete and has a gentle slope, so that water in the channel flows downhill from the source—a spring on a hill, perhaps—all the way to the city. But engineering these aqueducts required considerable skill, for the channel must maintain its slope as it winds its way along the countryside. The Romans used natural slopes such as a hillside wher-ever possible and built arched bridges when necessary. A total of 11 128 ... - tailieumienphi.vn