Deep underneath the ground is a hellish stone soup, kept hot by a torrent of radiation from poisonous isotopes of uranium, thorium and potassium in the earth's superheated mantle. This is the heat that helps cause volcanoes, geysers and hot springs, and it is also the same heat that powers a number of electricity generators across the globe.
In order to use this heat for power generation, engineers are drilling as deep as 15,000 feet into the earth's crust. Then, they will pump water down an injection wells where it is heated by the rock. The pressure forces the hot water to go up the production wells. The heat from the water is transferred to a working fluid, which boils at a low temperature. It's the heat that spins the turbine to create electricity.
However, despite of high-tech equipment, this geothermal energy source remains largely untapped. Thus, engineers are hoping to tap more of them some day.
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