Hot Dry Rock Collection Main Menu At the Earth's Core Preliminary Study of the Nuclear Subterrene A Method of Extracting Heat from Dry Geothermal Reservoirs Fenton Hill, New Mexico Candidate Sites for Future Hot Dry Rock Development in the United States Hot Dry Rock: A Realistic Energy Option Mining the Earth’s Heat: Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy Credits Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library

Hot Dry Rock Overview

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The Hot Dry Rock (HDR) geothermal energy project at Fenton Hill, New Mexico, on the flank of the Valles Caldera, began in 1973. Four closely-spaced wells, including sidetracked sections, were drilled into Precambrian basement rock heated by the adjacent caldera. Subsurface hydraulic fracturing experiments created a geothermal reservoir in low-permeability plutonic and metamorphic rocks with a high geothermal gradient but no natural hydrothermal system. The drilling phase of the project was finished in 1987 with the establishment of an artificial fluid circulation system through the hydraulically fractured rock between two wells. This system is called the Phase II reservoir to distinguish it from the earlier-established and shallower Phase I system.

- LA-14434-HDR

The HDR, or Hot Dry Rock, collection in Los Alamos Research Online presents the record of the Hot Dry Rock program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The collection is comprised of informal documents, reports, journal and conference papers, and experimental data. The program was most active from 1970 to 1996.

This brief overview is compiled using reports and memos found in the collection.

*The collection will be updated by batch uploads until the entire, historical, collection is represented in the repository.

This page has paths:

  1. Hot Dry Rock Collection by Los Alamos National Laboratory's Research Library Joshua Finnell

Contents of this path:

  1. At the Earth's Core
  2. Preliminary Study of the Nuclear Subterrene
  3. Fenton Hill, New Mexico
  4. A Method of Extracting Heat from Dry Geothermal Reservoirs
  5. Candidate Sites for Future Hot Dry Rock Development in the United States
  6. Hot Dry Rock: A Realistic Energy Option
  7. Mining the Earth’s Heat: Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy
  8. Credits