Serendipity—A Brief History of Events Leading to the Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy Program at Los Alamos

Abstract

How far back in our past did humans begin to use hot water and steam coming from vents in the earth’s surface to improve their lives? Did they make stops at such sites while moving from place to place, bathing in the warm pools or using the waters for cooking, and eventually construct villages near hot springs? We can only imagine in what ways man first availed himself of the earth’s heat; but we can assume that human populations in various areas sooner or later encountered hot waters that were bubbling up to the surface after having been raised to high temperatures by circulation through deep, hot rock—and that they made use of the heated water.