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Experts blame German quake series on geothermal power
Dec 8, 2010, 11:24 GMT
Landau, Germany - Experts blame Germany's first deep geothermal power plant for a series of small earthquakes that hit the western city of Landau, a state government said Wednesday.
The plant taps the energy from hot rock 3,000 metres deep in a particularly thin part of the earth's crust under Landau.
A quake that caused cracks in buildings in August 2009 and six more perceptible temblors the next month probably came from an increase in hot-water pressure in the pores of the rock after water was forced down a bore to keep the supply of hot water going.
The German state of Rhineland-Palatinate announced the findings by geothermal energy experts.
There is a big push currently to exploit rock heat because it has no effect on global climate. But a quake under Basle, Switzerland caused by a similar bore has put the industry under a cloud.
Germany is also exploiting shallow, weak heat from about 100 metres under the surface to heat apartment blocks and offices.
In both cases, water is brought up from below, heat is extracted from it, and the water is pumped back down in a continuous cycle.
The experts said the number of microquakes under Landau had increased since the plant was commissioned in November 2007. Officials have ordered it to reduce operating pressure. The experts recommended more monitoring as it operates.
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