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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

FY 79 Lava Lake Drilling Program: results of drilling experiments

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5778690· OSTI ID:5778690

A drilling program was conducted in December 1978 and January and February 1979 to continue the characterization of the solid and liquid rock components of the Kilauea Iki lava lake. Six holes were drilled from the surface and two previously drilled holes were reentered and deepened for the purposes of measuring downhole temperature profiles, recovering samples of solid, plastic, and molten rock, measuring crust permeability, and determining the performance of conventional and special drilling techniques. Conventional HQ-size (3.78 inches diameter) core drilling equipment using water for cooling and cuttings removal was used to successfully drill during initial entry into 1052/sup 0/C formations. Conventional drilling in reentering flow-back rock was less reliable. The specially designed water jet-augmented drag bit or water jet-augmented core bit was needed to drill reliably into the plastic flow-back rock and through liquid rock veins. This document contains the drill performance data which were recorded during drilling in the crust and the plastic and molten rock zones using both conventional and special drilling procedures and equipment.

Research Organization:
Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
EY-76-C-04-0789
OSTI ID:
5778690
Report Number(s):
SAND-79-1360
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English