Drilling in Wülfrath, Germany
In the course of the DGE-ROLLOUT project, the Geological Survey of North Rhine-Westphalia (GD NRW) started a new drilling campaign in Wülfrath on 1st October. During the next four weeks, it is aimed to obtain a drill core with a length of c. 200 m which will provide new information mainly on rocks of the Lower Carboniferous.
Once the drilling process is completed a geophysical survey of the borehole will be undertaken by our project partner DMT GmbH & co. KG. This will provide new data on rock properties and groundwater conditions. Subsequently, a detailed description of the drilled rocks will be carried out at GD NRW. In addition, geochemical and petrophysical investigations are planned.
Complementing an earlier drilling campaign in Heiligenhaus earlier this year, the current drilling further investigates some 330 to more than 361 million-year-old rocks from the Lower Carboniferous to Upper Devonian periods which had been deposited in a former ocean basin, the Rhenohercynian basin. Considering important geological characteristics (karstification, dolomitization, etc) it is known that these rocks are generally suitable for the exploitation of geothermal energy, assuming their deep burial and thermal insulation.
At Wülfrath-Düssel, however, the rocks occur in a geological trough structure directly below the surface and hence are not suited for the generation of geothermal energy. Nonetheless, the unproblematic accessibility of the rocks makes them an ideal target for geological investigation. In order to obtain as much rock as possible, and with regards to the steep occurrence of the geological units, the drilling is carried out at an angle of 60°.
