The main purpose of the IDDP project was to find out if it is economically feasible to extract energy and chemicals out of hydrothermal systems at supercritical conditions. To study the supercritical hydrous fluid, an advanced drilling technology needed to be applied and a novel fluid handling and evaluation system was designed. In 2009 a well (IDDP-1) was drilled to test this concept at Krafla in NE Iceland, planned to reach 4.5 km depth. However, drilling had to be terminated at only 2.1 km depth when 900°C rhyolitic magma flowed into the borehole. The borehole was completed as a subcritical well producing from the contact zone of the intrusion. The well proved to be highly productive. A second deep well was drilled in 2016-17 on the Reykjanes Peninsula in SW Iceland, on the landward extension of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The hydrothermal fluid in the Reykjanes geothermal field is modified sea water, so this deep well would be the first opportunity worldwide to sample the root zone of a magma-hydrothermal system similar to those that are the sources of the black smokers on the world-encircling mid-ocean ridges.

ICDP partly funded the workshop for phase 2 and supported the project during its drilling phase. Information on phase 1 of IDDP is available here.

The findings of IDDP inspired the idea of controlled drilling into the magma and sampling, as planned by KMT.

Keywords: Europe, Iceland, Geothermy, Native Hydrogen, Natural Resources, Rifting, Supercritical Fluids, Thermal Regimes