The Eielson Deep Hole

Not far from Eielson Air Force Base is a hole nearly 10,000 feet deep drilled by a federal agency in 1965 for emplacement of a seismic instrument. No longer used for that purpose, the Eielson deep hole is now yielding valuable scientific results and a suggestion for a cheap energy source for Fairbanks.

Based upon age dating of minerals taken from the hole at various depths, Dr. Robert B. Forbes and coworkers have been able to measure, of all things, surface erosion rates, over the past 120 million years. By rather esoteric means they find that the average erosion rate over this period is about four or five hundredths of a millimeter each year. That means it would take about 500 years to erode away an inch of rock at the surface.

It is also found that the temperature at the bottom of the hole is very near the boiling point of water. If a cheap way can be found to move all that heat upwards about two miles, every house in Fairbanks will have clean economical heat.