Boiling water in Kaibo well is a mystery

Hendrick van Genderen measures the water
temperature of mystery well.

Gary Eichler discusses the well with Hendrick van
Genderen.

Tuesday,  August 2, 2005

Workers drilling wells at the Kaibo Condos discovered boiling water in one of the wells last week, but no one seems to understand why, which is sparking off a flurry of attention.

Bunny Foster of Brac Construction said that only one of the ten wells drilled across the property has hot water.

“About two weeks ago we were drilling ten wells about 73 feet deep and hot water just started boiling out like in a pot,” said Mr Foster.

“We took a temperature reading of 212 degrees. It was too hot to stick your finger in it. We have never seen this happen before. We called the Water Authority to come and check it out.”

hough no one seems to have an explanation yet for the hot water, the temperature appears to be slowly decreasing over time. An officer from the Department of Environment measured the water at 170 degrees on 26 July and the next day a Water Authority engineer measured it at 63 Celsius or about 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Although there appears to be variations in temperature, it should be noted different people using different instruments measured the temperature at different times of the day according to Water Resources Engineer Hendrick van Genderen. Moreover, workers explained the water is hotter earlier in the day and tends to decrease in temperature late in the afternoon.

“This is very unusual as normal well temperature at the surface is between 70 to 75 degrees,” said Mr van Genderen. “Under normal conditions the water temperature increases one degree for every 100 feet. So by this criteria, that means this well would be about 7000 feet at this temperature.”

He explained that because this island is not volcanic, the boiling water appears to be a mystery. One possible explanation that has emerged is that it is a chemical reaction, but Mr van Genderen said that was unlikely to be the cause.

“I am short of an explanation,” said Mr van Genderen. “It is hot. We will be profiling the well from top to bottom.”

He explained that profiling will involve measuring the water temperature of the well at several levels. Then they will do similar measurements at the other wells to determine if there are any similarities.

While Mr van Genderen completed measuring the water temperature, another curious visitor and a hydrogeologist also came to see the mysterious hot water well.

“I don’t understand it either,” said hydrogeologist Gary Eichler.

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