Why scientists are drilling into magma
Iceland is one of the most volcanic places on earth. The Krafla volcano has erupted 30 times in the past 1,000 years. Now a team of scientists at the ambitious Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) project are drilling into the magma to explore the potential of harnessing geothermal energy by tapping into the extremely hot source of volcano power.
BBC 100 Women speaks to geologist Amel Barich to find out more about the work at KMT.
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BBC News
12-05-2025
- BBC News
The rare disease in a remote town where 'almost everyone is a cousin'
Before Silvana Santos arrived in the little town of Serrinha dos Pintos more than 20 years ago, residents had no idea why so many local children had lost the ability to walk. The remote town in north-eastern Brazil is home to fewer than 5,000 people, and is where biologist and geneticist Santos identified and named a previously unknown condition: Spoan syndrome. Caused by a genetic mutation, the syndrome affects the nervous system, gradually weakening the body. It only appears when the altered gene is inherited from both parents. Santos's research marked the first time the disease had been described anywhere in the world. For this and later work, she was named one of the BBC's 100 most influential women in 2024. Before Santos arrived, families had no explanation for the illness affecting their children. Today, residents talk confidently about Spoan and genetics. "She gave us a diagnosis we never had. After the research, help came: people, funding, wheelchairs," says Marquinhos, one of the patients. Serrinha dos Pintos: a world of its own Where Santos is from in São Paulo, Brazil's largest and wealthiest city, many of her neighbours were members of the same extended family originally from Serrinha. Many of them were cousins of varying degrees, married to each other. They told Santos that many of people in their hometown couldn't walk, but that no-one knew why. One of the neighbours' daughters, Zirlândia, suffered from a debilitating condition: as a child, her eyes moved involuntarily and over time, she lost strength in her limbs and needed to use a wheelchair, requiring help with even the simplest tasks. Years of investigation would lead Santos and a research team to identify these as symptoms of Spoan syndrome. They would go on to find 82 other cases worldwide. At the invitation of her neighbours, Santos visited Serrinha on holiday. She describes her arrival as stepping into "a world of its own" - not just because of the lush scenery and mountain views, but also due to what seemed to be a notable social coincidence. The more she walked and spoke with locals, the more surprised she was at how common marriages between cousins were. Serrinha's geographical isolation and little inward migration mean that many of the population are related, making marriage between cousins far more likely and more socially acceptable. Worldwide, marriages between relatives were estimated at around 10% in the early 2010s. More recent data shows the rate varies widely, from over 50% in countries like Pakistan, to 1-4% in Brazil and less than 1% in the US and Russia. Most children born to pairs of cousins are healthy, experts say. But these marriages do face a higher risk of a harmful genetic mutation being passed down through the family. "If a couple is unrelated, the chance of having a child with a rare genetic disorder or disability is about 2–3%. For cousins, the risk rises to 5–6% per pregnancy," explains geneticist Luzivan Costa Reis from Brazil's Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. A 2010 study led by Santos showed that more than 30% of couples in Serrinha were related, and a third of them had at least one child with a disability. Long road to diagnosis Santos set out to find a diagnosis for the people of Serrinha and she began planning a detailed genetic study, requiring multiple trips and eventually leading to her relocating to the region. She drove the 1,250 miles (2,000km) to and from São Paulo many times in the early years of her research. She collected DNA samples door-to-door, chatting to locals over coffee and gathering family stories, all the while trying to locate the mutation causing the disease. What was supposed to be three months of fieldwork turned into years of dedication. It all led to the publication in 2005 of the team's study revealing the existence of Spoan in the Brazilian hinterland. Santos's team found that the mutation involves the loss of a small fragment of a chromosome, which causes a gene to overproduce a key protein in brain cells. "They said it came from Maximiano, a womaniser in our family," recalls farmer Lolô, whose daughter Rejane has Spoan. Lolô, now 83, married his cousin and never left Serrinha. He still tends cattle and relies on family to care for Rejane, who struggles with daily tasks. But the genetic mutation behind Spoan is far older than the legend of Old Maximiano: it likely arrived more than 500 years ago with early European settlers in the north-east of Brazil. "Sequencing studies show strong European ancestry in patients, supporting records of Portuguese, Dutch, and Sephardic Jewish presence in the region," says Santos. The theory gained strength after two Spoan cases were found in Egypt, and further studies showed that the Egyptian cases also shared European ancestry, pointing to a common origin in the Iberian Peninsula. "It likely came with related Sephardic Jews or Moors fleeing the Inquisition," says Santos. She believes more cases may exist globally, especially in Portugal. Understanding the risks Although there's been little progress toward a cure, tracking patients has brought some change. Rejane recalls how people used to be called "cripples". Now, they're simply said to have Spoan. Wheelchairs brought not just independence, but also helped prevent deformities - in the past, many with the condition had been left simply lying in bed or on the floor. As Spoan progresses, physical limitations worsen with age and by 50, nearly all patients become fully dependent on carers. This is the case for Inés's children, who are among the oldest in Serrinha. Chiquinho, 59, can no longer speak, and Marquinhos, 46, has limited communication abilities. "It's hard to have a 'special' child. We love them the same, but we suffer for them," says Inés, who is married to a second cousin. Larissa Queiroz, 25, the niece of Chiquinho and Marquinho, also married a distant relative. She and her husband, Saulo, only discovered their common ancestor after several months of dating. "In Serrinha dos Pintos, deep down, we're all cousins. We're related to everyone," she says. Couples like Larissa and Saulo are the focus of a new research project which Santos is also involved in. Backed by Brazil's Ministry of Health, it will screen 5,000 couples for genes linked to serious recessive diseases. The goal is not to stop cousin marriages, but to help couples understand their genetic risks, says Santos. Now a university professor, she also leads a genetics education centre and works to expand testing in the north-east of Brazil. Though she no longer lives in Serrinha dos Pintos, every visit feels like coming home. "It's as if Santos is family," says Inés.
BBC News
01-04-2025
- BBC News
Why scientists are drilling into magma
Iceland is one of the most volcanic places on earth. The Krafla volcano has erupted 30 times in the past 1,000 years. Now a team of scientists at the ambitious Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) project are drilling into the magma to explore the potential of harnessing geothermal energy by tapping into the extremely hot source of volcano power. BBC 100 Women speaks to geologist Amel Barich to find out more about the work at KMT. Produced by BBC 100 Women
BBC News
17-10-2024
- BBC News
Volcano power: Icelandic scientist plan to drill down to magma
I'm in one of the world's volcanic hotspots, northeast Iceland, near the Krafla volcano.A short distance away I can see the rim of the volcano's crater lake, while to the south steam vents and mud pools bubble has erupted around 30 times in the last 1,000 years, and most recently in the Por Guðmundsson leads me to a grassy hillside. He is running a team of international scientists who plan to drill into Krafla's magma.'We're standing on the spot where we are going to drill,' he Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) intends to advance the understanding of how magma, or molten rock, behaves underground. That knowledge could help scientists forecast the risk of eruptions and push geothermal energy to new frontiers, by tapping into an extremely hot and potentially limitless source of volcano power. Starting in 2026 the KMT team will begin drilling the first of two boreholes to create a unique underground magma observatory, around 2.1km (1.3 miles) under the ground.'It's like our moonshot. It's going to transform a lot of things,' says Yan Lavelle, a professor of vulcanology at the Ludvigs-Maximllian University in Munich, and who heads KMT's science activity is usually monitored by tools like seismometers. But unlike lava on the surface, we don't know very much about the magma below ground, explains Prof Lavelle.'We'd like to instrument the magma so we can really listen to the pulse of the earth,' he and temperature sensors will be placed into the molten rock. 'These are the two key parameters we need to probe, to be able to tell ahead of time what's happening to the magma," he says. Around the world an estimated 800 million people live within 100km of hazardous active volcanoes. The researchers hope their work can help save lives and has 33 active volcano systems, and sits on the rift where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates pull recently, a wave of eight eruptions in the Reykanes peninsula has damaged infrastructure and upended lives in the community of Guðmundsson also points to Eyjafjallajökull, which caused havoc in 2010 when an ash cloud caused over 100,000 flight cancellations, costing £3bn ($3.95bn).'If we'd been better able to predict that eruption, it could have saved a lot of money,' he says. KMT's second borehole will develop a test-bed for a new generation of geothermal power stations, which exploit magma's extreme temperature.'Magma are extremely energetic. They are the heat source that power the hydrothermal systems that leads to geothermal energy. Why not go to the source?' asks Prof 65% of Iceland's electricity and 85% of household heating, comes from geothermal, which taps hot fluids deep underground, as a source of heat to drive turbines and generate the valley below, the Krafla power plant supplies hot water and electricity to about 30,000 homes.'The plan is to drill just short of the magma itself, possibly poke it a little bit,' says Bjarni Pálsson with a wry smile."The geothermal resource is located just above the magma body, and we believe that is around 500-600C,' says Mr Pálsson, the executive director of geothermal development at national power provider, Landsvirkjun. Magma is very hard to locate underground, but in 2009 Icelandic engineers made a chance had planned to make a 4.5km deep borehole and extract extremely hot fluids, but the drill abruptly stopped as it intercepted surprisingly shallow magma.'We were absolutely not expecting to hit magma at only 2.1km depth,' says Mr Pá magma is rare and has only happened here, Kenya and steam measuring a recording-breaking 452°C shot up, while the chamber was an estimated 900° video shows billowing smoke and steam. Acute heat and corrosion eventually destroyed the well.'This well produced about 10 times more [energy] than the average well in this location,' says Mr Pálsson. Just two of these could supply the same energy as the power plant's 22 wells, he notes. 'There is an obvious game changer.' More than 600 geothermal power plants are found worldwide, and hundreds more are planned, amid growing demand for round-the-clock low carbon energy. These wells are typically around 2.5km deep, and handle temperatures below 350° companies and research teams in several countries are also working towards more advanced and ultra-deep geothermal, called super-hot rock, where temperatures exceed 400°C at depths of 5 to deeper and much hotter, heat reserves is the "Holy Grail", says Rosalind Archer, the dean of Griffith University, and former director of the Geothermal Institute in New the higher energy density that's so promising, she explains, as each borehole can produce five to 10 times more power than standard geothermal wells.'You've got New Zealand, Japan and Mexico all looking, but KMT is the closest one to getting drill bit in the ground,' she says. 'It's not easy and it's not necessarily cheap to get started.' Drilling into this extreme environment will be technically challenging, and requires special Lavelle is confident it's possible. Extreme temperatures are also found in jet engines, metallurgy and the nuclear industry, he says.'We have to explore new materials and more corrosion resistant alloys,' says Sigrun Nanna Karlsdottir, a professor of industrial and mechanical engineering at the University of a lab, her team of researchers are testing materials to withstand extreme heat, pressure and corrosive gases. Geothermal wells are usually constructed with carbon steel, she explains, but that quickly loses strength when temperatures exceed 200°C.'We're focusing on high grade nickel alloys and also titanium alloys,' she says. Drilling into volcanic magma sounds potentially risky, but Mr Guðmundsson thinks otherwise.'We don't believe that sticking a needle into a huge magma chamber is going to create an explosive effect,' he asserts.'This happened in 2009, and they found out that they'd probably done this before without even knowing it. We believe it's safe.'Other risks also need to be considered when drilling into the earth like toxic gases and causing earthquakes, says Prof Archer. 'But the geological environment in Iceland makes that very unlikely.'The work will take years, but could bring advanced forecasting and supercharged volcano power.'I think the whole geothermal world are watching the KMT project,' says Prof Archer. 'It is potentially quite transformative.'
