He often tweets about mud volcanoes, but today Mark Tingay retweeted a message from a Japanese user of Twitter who filmed a violent eruption of steam – possibly mixed with dangerous H2S – from a well being drilled near Rankoshi in the north of Japan.
It appears that the well was being drilled for a geothermal power plant.
This is the translated text of the tweet by @namatakuan:
“This is a highlight video of the steam eruption accident site in Rankoshi, Hokkaido. Twenty minutes after the eruption, I started taking pictures, earlier than the press. Please note that hydrogen sulfide is also coming out, which is becoming more intense with time instead of being settled!
This article posted by a Japanese media outlet yesterday says: “The construction was carried out by “Mitsui Oil Exploration,” which is developing energy resources, and at that time, excavation work was being carried out to investigate the amount of resources for geothermal power generation.” The article also mentions that a spokesperson from Rankoshi town had said that “no toxic gases had been detected so far.”
A quick search shows that a steam explosion of this kind is not new to Japan. This article describes how fumaroles accompanied by eruptions of hot liquids spontaneously appeared near a geothermal well in 2010, which ultimately led to a steam explosion at the well and the formation of a crater lake. Geochemical sampling showed that the fluids at surface were indeed similar to the produced brines, suggesting that the casing of the well had failed. A relief well was successfully drilled to kill the original well.
