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filenox | 5 months ago

Most wells at Cape Station are between 8,000 and 9,000 feet deep, and the deepest one extends a mind-blowing 15,000 feet below the surface. That is about the depth you'd get to if you stacked 50 Statues of Liberty on top of each other!

For those who prefer a less American-centric metric: 8,000–9,000 feet is approximately 2.5 kilometers. 15,000 feet is about 4.5 kilometers — roughly the height of 14 Eiffel Towers stacked on top of each other!

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ajkjk|5 months ago

It's so silly to use statues of liberty as a metric when nobody really knows how tall it is either (famously it's a lot smaller than people expect).

Tempest1981|5 months ago

Helpful but pointless metrics:

1 Statue of Liberty (including foundation) is roughly 1 American football field (excluding end zones)

1 Eiffel Tower is around 3 Statues of Liberty (each with foundation)... which is almost 1600 bananas

daedrdev|5 months ago

Football fields, despite being a meme, are very easy for Americans to visualize

checkyoursudo|5 months ago

One statue of liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World, Liberty Island, NYC) is approximately 4 times the size of one statue of liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World replica, Île aux Cygnes, Paris).

Easy peasy.

rplnt|5 months ago

The idea is you assume it with the base while they only used the statue itself, making whatever they are measuring look more impressive.

catlifeonmars|5 months ago

AU would have been the most universal measurement.

lostlogin|5 months ago

Metric? That unit of measure must surely be imperial?

adrianmonk|5 months ago

It's probably done because Statues of Liberty is the ultimate "freedom unit".

Animats|5 months ago

> 8,000–9,000 feet is approximately 2.5 kilometers.

The usual value for the geothermal gradient is 25 to 30 degrees C per kilometer. So at 2.5km, in most locations they might be able to get boiling water, but not superheated steam. Most of the geothermal enthusiasts are talking about needing to go down 4 to 12 kilometers. Is there something special about the geology at this site?

jandrewrogers|5 months ago

The site is part of the largest high-quality geothermal basin in the world. It is larger than most countries, encompassing almost the entirety of Nevada and large parts of adjacent States. The geothermal potential of the region is enormous, even just using classic geothermal technology.

The US has long been the world's leading producer of geothermal power, mostly generated from this basin.

AnimalMuppet|5 months ago

I couldn't see anything that said, but... probably.

Beaver County, Utah, has at least one hot spring, and I suspect more than that. I'm pretty sure that the location for this project was not chosen at random.

metalman|5 months ago

likely it is hot, porous rock that is capped in such a way that injected water will heat to the super critical point for water , or water exists as a super critical fluid there already

realityfactchex|5 months ago

Actually, 3 miles means a lot more to Americans than 15,000 feet, much like your 2.5 kilometers.

And 50 football fields would mean a lot more, to less measurement-aware Americans.

_DeadFred_|5 months ago

The Statue of Liberty was made by France. This IS us Americans trying to use less American-centric units of measure.

apitman|5 months ago

Both made by the French

yread|5 months ago

> 4.5 kilometers — roughly the height of 14 Eiffel Towers stacked on top of each other!

Or about one Mont Blanc from sea level