'Five-Year Survey For Thermal Steam Starting

Northern Advocate, 18 April 1949, Page 3

'Five-Year Survey For Thermal Steam Starting

WELLINGTON, Mon. (Sp.).~~A five-year survey will probably be necessary before a detailed study of geological structure can be completed and a reliable assessment made of the natural steam available for the generation of electric power. Special equipment has been imported and general plans have been made for starting the survey of the. Rotorua area. Similar work will be carried out in the vicinity of Ngawha Springs.

It is considered that the prospects of finding at Ngawha rock structures similar to those at Lardarello, in Italy, where power is generated by natural steam, arc brighter than in the Rotorua area. The first major task for the New Zealand Geological Survey will be to map the general geological structure below the surface over a wide area covering roughly the central portion of the North Island. This wilt be done with a seismic prospecting unit mounted in a special truck which arrived at. Wellington recently from the United States. It can determine the formation of the earth to a depth of at least 15.000 feet below the surface by recording the echoes from explosive charges fired in the ground. BEGINNING NEXT WEEK Use of this mobile station will enable a general survey of the area, beginning next week, to be completed in about two years. .Detailed studies of particular areas will be carried on by other parties using the same method but at lesser depths. One has already been undertaken in the vicinity of Tikilere, near Rotorua. However, much more intricate work, interpreted with the knowledge of the general geological structure, will be required before it is known whether the conditions at Lardarello are duplicated here. Geologists are not at all confident that this will be the case but otuer conditions favourable for a supply of natural steam may well be found. Three more years will be required for all this.