[Rockhounds] Iceland will tunnel into a volcano to tap into virtually unlimited geothermal power

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

An initiative that sounds a lot like Jules Verne
<https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/culture/books/things-jules-verne-got-right-and-he-didnt-2008/>
‘s *Journey to the Center of the Earth* might mark the first time humans
have tapped into magma
<https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/natural-sciences/geology-and-paleontology/planet-earth/difference-lava-magma/>,
the molten rock liquid flowing beneath Earth’s crust. In 2026, Iceland’s
Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT) project will drill into a volcano’s magma
chamber, seeking to tap into its super-hot fumes to generate geothermal
energy at a scale that has never been attempted before.

The endeavor promises to power homes across Iceland with a renewable,
limitless energy source. And no, this won’t cause the currently active
Krafla volcano to erupt, according to John Eichelberger, a volcanologist at
the University of Alaska Fairbanks interviewed by *New Scientist*
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26134722-100-worlds-first-tunnel-to-a-magma-chamber-could-unleash-unlimited-energy/>
.

Geothermal energy, a technology harnessed by Iceland for years, involves
drilling into hot underground regions to produce steam from heated water.
This steam drives turbines, generating electricity. Today, at least 90% of
all homes <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-15174-8_5> in
Iceland are heated with geothermal energy and 70% of all energy used in the
island nation comes from geothermal sources.

However, these systems tap into relatively cooler geothermal energy,
yielding lower efficiency. Tapping into the magma chamber’s higher
temperatures could significantly boost the energy supply, making it more
powerful than conventional wells. Water in the magma chamber isn’t
collected as steam as is the case with other geothermal plants but rather
as “supercritical” water — water that is so hot and pressurized it is
neither exactly liquid nor steam. A single magma geothermal plant could
generate at least ten times more power than a conventional geothermal plant.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/iceland-geothermal-magma-chamber/