This is mind blowing ignorance on the part of Al Gore. Gore in an 11/12/09 interview on NBC’s tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, speaking on geothermal energy, champion of slide show science, can’t even get the temperature of earth’s mantle right, claiming “several million degrees” at “2 kilometers or so down”. Oh, and the “crust of the earth is hot” too.
Temperature of the sun’s corona: 1–2 million kelvin
Temperature of the sun’s photosphere: 6,000 kelvin
Temperature of the Earths mantle, more than “2 kilometers or so down”: between 500 °C to 900 °C (773 to 1173 kelvin)
Watching Gore make a complete scientific idiot of himself on national TV: priceless
Don’t believe me? Watch the video from NBC below:
For a faster presentation, without a pre-viewing commercial, here is the same video on YouTube
Oh…and here is a graph of the vertical temperature profile with drilling depth:
And here is the temperature profile of the Earth’s crust, mantle, and core:
Source: Electropaedia (Mpower UK) page on geothermal energy
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DEEPEST HOLE EVER DRILLED
“the Russians drilled for more than 15 years to reach a crust depth of 40,226 feet, a record that’s never been broken.”
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2008/08/gallery_kola_borehole
Why they stopped, I don’t know, but I don’t think it was because their drill bit melted.
See here for brief comparison with oil drilling depths, etc.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2008/08/gallery_kola_borehole
Geothermal is a bust because the power station removes heat from the rocks faster than heat can flow through the rock to replace it.
Odd how the people who refuse to believe a nuclear power station can be built safely by engineers then expect them to drill through to molten rock.
Just 2 more comments. In the Bakken field they send air down hole and do fire flooding to warm the oil and improve viscosity. Obviously the heat and pressure by injecting CO2 under a few thousand PSI also is used to push oil to the lift pump device. Of course Algore doesn’t know about energy.
hunter (14:37:32) :
“Fiction cannot be stranger or more entertaining than fact…”
Ahh, yes, but at least one can put the fiction back on the shelf and return to reality. But when reality bites, where is one to go? I wonder if maybe that’s not one reason man invented fiction to begin with?
“Temperature of the Earths mantle, more than “2 kilometers or so down”: between 500 °C to 900 °C (773 to 1173 kelvin)”44
Classic!
So people have a problem with non-climatologists (but with a scientific background) commenting on AGW but Al Gore gets a free pass – amazing.
In a well we drilled on the North Slope of Alaska, at about 2 kms, the temp was a chilly 110 F , because the 1st 2000 ft are frozen solid in the permafrost (ie the temp at 0.67 km was zero deg C).
Typical geothermal gradients – outside geothermally active areas are 1.5 to 2.5 deg F per 100 ft. The gradient hangs off the mean surface temperature of where ever you ar on the Earth.[ ie subsurface temp = surface temp + (depth*gradient) ]
Do the math Al !
Looks like Big Al has gotten too used to looking at his bank statements and thinking in millions.
Give the guy a break. After all, he did invent the internet.
More irony: George W Bush has been using geothermal heat pumps on his Texas ranch for years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Chapel_Ranch
I understand geothermal is the largest alternate energy source and technologically mature. Having made the occasional mistake under pressure myself I can overlook fhe tempreature blunders. For once I fhink Gore had something useful to say.
Two points:
1. As far as “Green” goes, GW “walked the walk” while Al Gore only “talks the talk”.
2. GW was a leader in “green technologies” and his record gives lie to all of the things said about his care for the environment.
GW’s ranch house in Crawford Texas was designed to be energy efficient. It utilizes ground water at 67 degrees as a source of heat and heat sink FOR A HEAT PUMP and the total energy consumption has been rated at 1/4 the “normal household usage”.
The Goracle’s house on the other hand…….
http://www.practicalenvironmentalist.com/energy-efficiency/perhaps-al-gore-should-ask-george-w-bush-for-help-in-making-his-house-more-energy-efficient.htm
I believe that wind power is useful only in very limited applications and subsidized mandates are a waste of my money. Never the less, GW made Texas the leader in wind power when he was Governor (see above link). He may have been able to do more as President if the Democrats hadn’t been so desperate to make him fail in everything he tried.
GW’s 2008 State of the Union Speech, relevant part here:
Or the whole speech here (worth listening to for a historical perspective):
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/stateoftheunion2006.htm
On the other hand, see here:
Do you miss him yet?
Regards,
Steamboat Jack
“The interior of the earth is several millions of degrees.” – Al Gore!!!
2012 SPOILER ALERT for the movie 2012!!!!
In 2012, the epic and awesome disaster movie to end all disaster movies, the Earth’s crust is heated up (by some nonsense) and starts melting and collapsing everywhere causing total destruction.
Al Gore just stated that the core of the Earth is several million degrees. Well, get ready for the crust to melt! 2012 is here!
Several million degrees.
His numbers were just a little off. In fact he…..
http://www.entertonement.com/collections/9282/missed-it
Ye gods & little fishes. Old Fatty Gorblimey is digging his grave with his teeth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power
In truth, I could not watch the clip to the end, because all that the creature represents is anathema to right thinking people. A pox on his house.
Robinson (14:35:33) : “In other news, the mainstream media are starting to go with the flow. I’m seeing more and more skeptical articles, particularly I think, in response to the avalanche of skeptical comments they keep getting in their warmist articles. I suppose it’s a kind-of democracy, isn’t it?”
That particular article is a setup. As Leif will tell you (oh, about two dozen times) TSI hasn’t changed significantly over the past 100 years. There’s a chance that temperatures will not take a drastic turn downward due to lower sunspot numbers. The article takes an either-or stance–either recent warming (such as it is, given GISS ‘corrections’ and ‘homogenizations’ and whatnot) is due to solar maximum or it’s due to CO². But there are other, better possible causes. We just don’t know at this point.
Crikey, it’s time for a little reality here…As a geologist, mainly working in sedimentary basins (that’s right – hydrocarbon exploration) a rough rule of thumb is that temperature increase with depth is about 3.5 C per 100 metres in a basin with a normal gradient. So, at a little less than 3,000m (~10,000 ft) depth we are just above boiling point of water, i.e. 105 C or 212 F. At 70,000 ft (~21,000m), ref. Henry Chance, we should expect to see a temperature of c. 750 C (1,375 F). Hot! but not millions…..
Michael
Whoops! 105 C should read 100 C
@Sandy – Geothermal works where the conditions are right. Calpine’s Geysers geothermal plant is probably their most valuable asset. Its just that there are not a lot of places around that you can arbitrarily plop a plant and think you are going to get much power out of it. In that I will agree with you. It is also interesting that some of the attempts at geothermal power generation in mainland Europe have been halted because the thermal contraction of the rock due to the extraction of energy has appeared to have produced some minor earthquakes. They are holding off until they understand things better. Sometimes unintended side effects really ruin the whole show. This one may be one of them. But that said, geothermal cooling does have some advantages at least in the NE. In those areas where you can extract water from some number of feet down, the water is reasonably cool. Flow it over the condenser of the air conditioning unit and return it and the efficiency of your heat pump goes up quite a bit. You could probably save more energy that way in summer than you could produce with geothermal in the more general case.
The juxtaposition of this story with the Monckton is about the best commentary I have seen about AGW in a long time. Pure accident I am sure. Uh huh.
No wonder Al runs away from the prospect of openly debating Lord Monckton on AGW! LM would crucify him.
BC Bill,
I think if it were mature and going to work, it would be working right now.
I would certainly like it be practical.
It is not as environmentally damaging as windmills.
At least the heat source does not set every everning, like solar.
It takes up vastly less space than either.
But it is not widely used for a reason. I am certian the reason has to do with the corrosive nature of deep hot places, and the problem of tapping heat out of a region too quickly. Added to that problem of moving power from remote places where it is produced to where it is wanted, and I am betting the problems are very significant.
http://www.energy-consumers-edge.com/pros_and_cons_of_geothermal_energy.html
Indeed, but the point I’m making is that the MSM are at least exploring alternatives and presenting the views of dissenters to an extent, whether or not their counter-view is actually the correct one. It’s not something I would have seen this time last year.
Is that a toupee ?
Yes, always on topic and adding that extra bit of insight, but appropriate in this case because that’s the only significant thing gleanable from the video. Makes me glad that Bill Clinton stayed healthy.
I’m guessing the areas near rifts would be the hottest, since that’s where the crust is thinnest.
The smug delivery here makes it worse, but being off by three orders of magnitude is just very, very bad in itself, betraying a complete lack fundamental understanding of whatever the subject is.
“‘Cause New York is extremely far away from Los Angeles, three million miles…”
“‘Cause Denver has an extremely high elevation, five million feet…”
“Cause Al Gore was extremely overweight, 125 tons…”
Is it any wonder that Gore refuses to debate any anti-AGW scientists or other skeptics in a public forum? He would get his head handed to him! Heck, who needs someone on the other side of the debate? Just let him talk and he’ll provide the rope to hang himself. It’s pitiful, really.
Paul
A year or two ago, sitting in the barber shop, waiting my turn, I was leafing through a Pop. Science or Pop. Mechanics and found an article about a working, sizeable, low temp. geothermal power plant powering a large resort in Alaska. The plant was designed and built by the Trane Co. using an air conditioning fluid as the working medium. The energy came from a warm aquifer, well below boiling temp. and a cold aquifer. The temp diff. was enough to drive a gas turbine that drove a generator. They said it eliminated a $100K/mo. diesel fuel bill. THe article also stated that the hot waste water coming from many oil wells was sufficient to power the oil well. I’ve seen or heard nothing about it since. I think I’ll give Trane a Google.