Don Douglas, age 12,. of Spokane, Washington, for his question:

What exactly is geothermal power?

Geo refers to the earth and thermal means heat. The power is electricity generated from heat within the earth's crust. This geothermal heat energy is created by crustal unrest in regions of young or growing mountains. Near the surface, it expresses itself as hot springs and geysers, fumeroles and seething volcanic lavas. For generations the sensible people of Iceland have piped water from their hot springs to homes and factories. This heat has two impressive advantages: It is free and it adds no pollutants to our planet.

In Northern California, a few plants use geothermal heat to generate electric power. For many years, sensible scientists have been pleading for the use of vast resources of geothermal heat in our southern deserts. Now countless ordinary citizens are becoming concerned by the burning of extravagant and polluting fossil fuels to generate electric power. Let's hope that this public awareness will provoke us into tapping our vast resources of ground heat to generate economical, non¬polluting geothermal power