Study Shows How The Cooper Basin Geothermal Site Ended Up So Hot

Our world is covered in a variety of renewable energy sources that humanity has spent a great deal of our history attempting to harness. Now that we have reached a point in our modern, oil fueled society where we realize that the fuel sources we have relied on for so long are both finite and damaging to our planet we are looking into the future for how these renewable energy sources can help us. However, while we are always looking forward to what the future of renewables may be, there are few that take a moment to look back at the reason why we have those renewable energy sources in the first place.

In Australia, a geothermal energy researcher named Dr. Tonguç Uysal believes he has discovered the source for one of Australia's largest geothermal renewable energy sources. The site in question, called Cooper Basin, is now believed to have been formed well over 300 million years ago when a sizable asteroid struck a portion of the continent that is now the border between the regions of Queensland and South Australia. Dr. Uysal, who works at the University of Queensland's Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence, believes the asteroid in question is responsible for creating the second largest impact crater in Australia and a shock zone that would have been nearly eighty kilometers wide at the time of impact.

Dr. Uysal believes that the impact of the massive asteroid, or perhaps a cluster of asteroids, changed the earth in the surrounding area so drastically that is helped creating the renewable energy resource that is found there today. According to his findings, which were drawn from finding elements that would have been found on the falling asteroid within the area's stone and soil layers, the impact of the asteroid would have boiled all of the water in the surrounding area and then transformed the minerals there into heat producing elements. As the site settled over the years those heat producing elements created a geothermal area that has become ideal for use in geothermal energy projects that Australia have been working on in recent years.

Cooper Basin is currently under review by the Australian government for use in a large scale geothermal energy project. According to the various studies undertaken in the area, the rocks that lie beneath the surface in that area are among the hottest in the world that are not located within an unreasonable distance of a volcano. Until the government can determine whether or not it would be financially viable and safe to undertake the project at Cooper Basin, however, the site is likely to remain only a prospective project area and an object of scientific interest.

Dr. Uysal and his colleagues will be presenting their findings relating to Cooper Basin and other areas at the Australian Geothermal Energy Conference in Adelaide, Australia later in November. Though the results of his research will not necessarily do anything for current geothermal projects, it does make it interesting to note just how such a unique area began.