Subterranean Explorations
The Unfinished Promise of Geothermal Energy in the Chilean Andes
1st Edition
Published on 4. June 2024
184 pages
978-3-8394-7263-7 (ISBN)
Description
Geological phenomena have a strong visual presence in the landscape of the Chilean Andes. Volcanoes, thermal springs, earthquakes and geysers arise from an active geology. From the start of the 20th century, engineers and geologists have imagined transforming the heat of groundwater reservoirs into electricity. However, its use as electric power at a national scale remains an unfinished promise. Inspired by the anthropology of energy and infrastructures, Martín Fonck delves into the promises of geothermal energy and their abandonment in the Chilean Andes.
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Martín Fonck
Subterranean Explorations
The Unfinished Promise of Geothermal Energy in the Chilean Andes
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06/2024
1st Edition
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Author
Martín Fonck, Technische Universität München, Deutschland
Martín Fonck forscht und lehrt am Lehrstuhl für Wissenschaftssoziologie und dem Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS) der TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology. Er hat am Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society und am Institut für Ethnologie der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) promoviert. Des Weiteren war er wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Forschungsinstitut für Nachhaltigkeit - Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam. Er untersucht die Zukunft von Umwelttechnologien aus einer ethnografischen und historischen Perspektive.
ISNI:
Content
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: The geothermal (in)visibility of the Chilean Andes
- Following the geothermal evidence
- Geothermal Explorations
- Geology
- Exploration Infrastructures
- Geothermal Futures
- Geothermal (in)visibility in five chapters
- 1 Rocks
- 1.1 Rocks, textures, and heat trajectories on a geological fault
- 1.2 The problem of scales in Geology
- 1.3 Heat Trajectories
- 1.4 Fieldnotes
- 2 Vapor
- 2.1 Well stories: Drilling and measuring the El Tatio vapor
- 2.2 (In)visible bodies and vapor
- 2.3 Collapsing well
- 3 Underground water
- 3.1 Geothermal traces and water trajectories
- 3.2 (In)visible wells: Underground water policies
- 3.3 The Inauguration of Cerro Pabellon
- 3.4 Water trajectories and the abandonment of electric power in El Tatio
- 4 Forest
- 4.1 Inaugurating a direct use pilot
- 4.2 Seeking for a guide's orientation
- 4.3 Lost behind a closed mountain
- 4.4 Local guides, the pillan, and Mapuche undergrounds
- 5 Thermal Springs
- 5.1 "The Real Thermalism"
- 5.2 Thermal Spring (Dis)appearance
- 5.3 The silence of the Springs
- 6 Conclusion
- 6.1 The imaginaries of electricity
- 6.2 Imagining other futures
- 6.3 The description problem
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- References
