Fracking technology can help make geothermal power possible almost everywhere

Geothermal power can generate electricity and provide direct heating for homes

By drilling several kilometers through penetrable rock, wells can access highly pressurized groundwater warmed by thermal energy trapped beneath Earth's surface. This water can be turned into steam to create electricity in generators. Heating systems several meters deep can pump fluid underground before circulating it through buildings.

Enhanced geothermal power systems can trigger earthquakes

These systems inject fluid into rock to create cracks that allow deeper reservoirs of fluid to escape or to create networks where water can be deposited for heating. This injection can increase subterranean pressure and potentially trigger earthquakes, necessitating the use of sensors and moderated drilling technologies.

Fracking provides access to fossil fuel reserves locked in underground rock

Using a pressurized fluid mixture that is over 90% water, cracks are created in shale about 2 miles deep to release trapped oil and natural gas. The process uses an average of 3 to 6 million gallons of water per well, which can strain local water supplies.

Geothermal power may meet 15% of global electricity demand growth through 2050

According to the International Energy Agency, the estimate would require the construction of geothermal capacity with an annual output equivalent to the combined electricity consumption in the US and India in 2024. The report suggests geothermal investment will reach $2.5T by 2050, with the integration of fracking technologies decreasing costs by 80% by 2035.

The continuous decay of radioactive elements regenerates geothermal energy reserves

Geothermal power is a renewable energy source derived from Earth's interior, where the core reaches temperatures exceeding 5,000 degrees Celsius (9,000 degrees Fahrenheit). These temperatures result from leftover energy from collisions during planetary formation, with radioactive decay in the core releasing additional energy that travels to the surface.

Geothermal power plants can provide large-scale energy storage for other systems

These facilities can store excess energy from solar and wind power as hot water or steam, which can be used to run turbines to generate electricity when other renewable energy sources are unavailable. Simulations have found efficiencies of 90% during a storage-use cycle, making it comparable to lithium-ion batteries.

Geothermal power can reduce the dangerous mining of rare earth elements

Geothermal brines—mineral-rich underground fluids extracted for use in geothermal plants—contain small concentrations of REEs that can be recovered after energy generation. Although researchers suggest that this retrieval requires complex extraction methods at a significant scale to account for high flow rates, the chemical processes also occur in traditional REE processing.

Some geothermal power plants make electricity using a secondary fluid

Direct dry-steam systems pull underground steam into a turbine-generator system, while flash and double-flash cycle systems spray extracted liquid water into a low-pressure tank, causing it to rapidly vaporize—"flash"—before moving to the turbine. Binary cycle systems use the extracted steam and water to flash a second fluid that easily boils, which then drives the turbine.

Like nuclear power, US geothermal power plant construction stalled for decades

Development and investment into geothermal energy took off in the 1960s. However, by the 1980s, companies repeatedly failed to find reservoirs of hot water when exploring new locations, and investors lost interest in the expensive drilling required. By the 2020s, technological advancements had finally helped mitigate exploration risk and expand viable drilling locations.

Explore next-generation geothermal projects worldwide

This tool from the Clean Air Task Force allows users to see the location of geothermal power systems to depths of 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles), where temperatures reach about 450 degrees Celsius (842 degrees Fahrenheit), including proposed, abandoned, and in-development projects.

As of 2022, just 0.5% of installed renewable energy capacity worldwide is geothermal

Despite being able to generate electricity regardless of the weather, solar (28%) and wind (27%) are far more prevalent, primarily because of their lower upfront costs. Geothermal plants use 88% less space than solar farms to produce the same energy, but have been restricted to geologically active regions.

Wastewater from geothermal power plants helps melt sidewalk snow in Iceland

Located on the Mid-Atlantic ridge, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates move apart, the nation saw geothermal power meet more than 90% of its heating demand in 2024. After the hot water produced by these plants is used to heat homes and businesses, it is transferred through small pipes beneath Reykjavík's sidewalks.

Learn how aquifers and wells provide the largest reserves of accessible freshwater on Earth

Roughly a third of Earth's freshwater is stored underground in aquifers—permeable and porous rock formations where water naturally flows from the Earth's surface and accumulates. About half of this groundwater is accessed through wells, a feat of engineering used for thousands of years.

The world's first geothermal power plant was built in 1913 in Devil's Valley

In Tuscany, Italy, Prince Piero Ginori-Conti of Trevignano established the plant nine years after creating a generator that powered five light bulbs using steam vents in the area. Within three years, a second plant was built with two generators, each with 10 times the energy output of the first.

Landfills capture methane gas and convert it into usable energy

As organic waste breaks down underground, it produces landfill gas that is roughly 50% methane. That gas can be captured and used to generate electricity or provide heat for nearby homes and businesses.

A look at hydrothermal vents, where barophiles and hyperthermophiles survive boiling water

Discovered in 1977 during an exploration of the Galapagos Rift, these seafloor openings spew hot magma and chemicals that heat seawater to hundreds of degrees. Without the sunlight found at depths of less than 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), extremophiles in these environments convert released chemicals into energy to survive, alongside surviving extreme pressures.

Humans have used geothermal resources for thousands of years

In North America, Indigenous peoples viewed hot springs as sacred places and used them for medicinal purposes, cooking, and surviving cold weather. The ancient Greeks and Romans also viewed them as sacred, partaking in hot mineral baths to relieve ailments and using them for space heating.

In 2025, AI detected a previously unknown geothermal reservoir

Utah-headquartered startup Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals found it beneath a part of the western Nevada desert using an AI trained on previously known blind sites—reservoirs with no visual evidence for their existence. The discovery represents the first industry-discovered blind site in more than three decades.

Underwater data centers may provide an alternative to energy-intensive air cooling

By submerging electronic hardware into a non-conductive fluid, such as an oil with strong thermal transfer properties, significant thermal energy can be quickly drawn away from a chip and brought to the surface as warm materials rise. Thermal energy can then be removed from the fluid with a heat exchanger before it is recirculated.

Explaining how water's movement between different salt concentrations can generate electricity

Water naturally moves from regions of low salinity, such as freshwater, to regions of high salinity, such as ocean water, across a semipermeable membrane. This movement produces pressure that can be harnessed in osmotic power systems to drive turbines and generate electricity, much like in hydroelectric plants.

In 2019, the US became a net energy exporter thanks to the fracking boom

The US began exporting more energy than it consumed that year, making it a net energy exporter. Energy imports have decreased every year since 2007, as improved technology has increased the number of accessible domestic oil and natural gas reserves.

A case study of how engineers and geologists at Tullow Oil look for oil reserves

An analysis of surface rocks using aerial and satellite imagery can help narrow the search for crude oil by identifying basins where sedimentary layers have compacted—a key process in oil formation. Surveys that look for variations in Earth's gravitational and magnetic fields consistent with specific rock distributions, or that use sound waves reflected off rock layers—not unlike sonar underwater—can also help map subsurface geology.

An overview of hydropower

Hydropower, or the use of the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity, is one of the oldest and largest sources of renewable energy.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Europa's deep ocean may hold the conditions needed to support alien life

Beneath its frozen crust, Europa hides a salty ocean heated by tidal forces from Jupiter. This environment may resemble Earth's deep-sea hydrothermal vents and have allowed for the development of life over billions of years.

The greenhouse effect was discovered by analyzing Earth's temperature

Using mathematical techniques developed to analyze heat transfer, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier showed that Earth should be significantly cooler if solar radiation were the only contributor to its surface temperature. By considering that the atmosphere could amplify the sun's warming effect, he formulated what became known as the greenhouse effect.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Experimental hantavirus vaccines and therapies, still under development, have long been funded by the US military.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.