Rookhope Borehole · AditNow Community

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Vanoord
54.4% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

11 years ago

We had an email about Rockhope borehole, which is reproduced below.

🔗Rookhope-Shaft-Archive-Album-Image-78230[linkphoto]Rookhope-Shaft-Archive-Album-Image-78230[/linkphoto][/link]

Quote:

Drilling took place in 1965/6.

I was the seismic engineer in charge 1966-76.

The borehole is 10” in diameter and sunk to a depth of 2650 feet.

The bottom filled with sediments to a depth of about 150 feet.

Water-table was approx. 100 ft. down and water quite warm.

It was drilled, here to *"prove that this part of Weardale sits on the top of another granite mountain”

This mountain exists at 1100 ft. below the surface where top-soil was found - estimated to have originally been (perhaps) 9" thick!
A winch was used to lower a seismometer down to the bottom. A stainless steel cable ( originally designed for use with Barrage Balloons during the war) carried electrical wires.

A world-wide Seismic Array was then installed "L" shaped around the village of Rookhope.

The "L" layout is used to identify the direction of the seismic wave.

19 miles of "telephone cable" (twin flex) and covered 11 different properties.

The Centre of operations was installed in the old Miners Hall ? on the outskirts of the village.

Data from all Seismometers was recorded on 1" magnetic tape and this was analysed in the then Dept. of Geological Sciences at Durham University.

The rock, cored from the borehole was stored in the same above mentioned Miners Hall only to be moved in the 1900s to the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh.

It is regrettable that the borehole which was covered by a strong steel lid and padlocked was broken into and some lengths of steel rail dropped down. these became jammed and some costly attempts to free them failed.

A plan had been drawn up to possibly pump water down here and then to draw heated water (possible site was Consett) thus providing a preheated source in the production of electricity. It may have put Rookhope on the map!

* Some may question why so much money was spent on a borehole of such depth ?

Yours Seismic.

Hello again darkness, my old friend...

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sinker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

2650 ft?! A mere baby of a borehole....
We carried out some boreholes around Windscale (Sellafield, sorry...) in 1989/90 that were 3000m+. Large scale gravity surveys too.
Client was NIREX, so...ahem...you can work out what those were for.... 😉 Could Rookhope be the same? Conspiracy theorists form an orderly queue....

Yma O Hyd....

christwigg
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

A bit more info about its more recent relocation (all 25 tonnes if it)

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Rookhope-Shaft/Rookhope-Borehole.pdf

ChrisJC
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

The BGS borehole records can be downloaded from here:
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/boreholescans/home.html

Chris.

sinker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

"ChrisJC" wrote:
The BGS borehole records can be downloaded from here:
http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/boreholescans/home.html

Chris.

I meant to post up that link earlier on, its a great web site.

Slightly :offtopic: :oops: but take a look at all the "restricted" NIREX boreholes around Sellafield. We were very busy there, back in the day 😉 :offtopic:

Yma O Hyd....

Roger L
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

This site is very good for finding mines and mine workings. I have found several unknown ones on it.

Mine Lectures & Walks available for around Huddersfield

BertyBasset
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

Wasn't it the case that the simple hypothesis of mineralisation being due to granite intruded into country rock was disproved? I seem to recall that the granite was older than the country rock (strata in which minerals are found) and that mineralisation would therefore be due to a later event.

ad289
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

Looking at the BGS logs it looks like marine transgression onto a weathered granite landscape.

BertyBasset
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

So presumably post depositional brines being mobilised by the still hot granite at depth.

NewStuff
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

#10

"Isabel Gott" wrote:
This site is very good for finding mines and mine workings. I have found several unknown ones on it.

Indeed, I've just found a couple of Adit's marked in an area I know pretty well, and these are unknown to me, and I've never heard anyone else talk about them (that's not to say they haven't been explored, given the politics in this area). I think I need to have to have a mooch around there.

Searching for the ever elusive Underground Titty Bar.

DDDWH CC

colin567
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

#11

The money was spent for some 'proper science' real geological research. Dunham had been working on the North Pennine Orefield for years, Bott, Johnson and others at Durham were also working alongside. Gravity surveys discovered anomolies which suggested that there was a granite underneath, which would be the source of mineralisation.
The Geological Survey paid for the drilling, but all were really surprised to discover a granite with a weathered surface. It kept people busy with theorising where the heat came from for quite a while.

Graigfawr
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

#12

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B0_%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%B6%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0 (%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B0),_%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B3%D1%83%D1%81%D1%82_2012.JPG The dereliction seems very sad after the immense expenditure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

BertyBasset
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

#13

"colin567" wrote:
TGravity surveys discovered anomolies which suggested that there was a granite underneath, which would be the source of mineralisation.

Is it the case that the granite is the 'source' of the mineralisation, or just the driver of the hydrothermal engine which actually sources the minerals from other rocks? I seem to recall that for the Welsh Basin at least, the positive zinc and lead ions were flocculated into the shales and mudstones by negative clay ions, and thence mobilised by fluids at a later date.

colin567
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

11 years ago

#14

It's a bit early in the morning, but if I recall correctly, radioactive decay within the granite provided the heat to drive the circulating fluids. The Permian Zechstein sea was highly saline, so the circulating fluids were as well, these concentrated the minerals, precipitating them in the veins and flatts.
The heat is still there, with boreholes on the Slit vein at Eastgate and the 90 Fathom dyke in Newcastle demonstrating high heat flows and the potential for geothermal energy.