A New Gold Pan for the West: Discovering Blind Geothermal with Shallow Temperature Surveys

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A New Gold Pan for the West Discovering Blind
Geothermal with Shallow Temperature Surveys
1Christopher Kratt, 2Mark Coolbaugh, 2Chris
Sladek, 2Rick Zehner, 2Robin Penfield, 3Ben
Delwiche
1Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway,
Reno, NV 89512 2 Great Basin Center for
Geothermal Energy, MS-172, University of Nevada
Reno, Reno, NV 89557 3 Ormat Technologies, Inc.,
6225 Neil Road, Suite 300, Reno, NV 89511
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More than 100,000 MWe of undeveloped geothermal
power are estimated to exist in the United States
(Green and Nix, 2006 Tester et al., 2006)
An estimated 157 undiscovered geothermal systems
exist in Nevada (Coolbaugh et al., 2007)

• Many of these undiscovered systems are concealed

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Why ground temperature measurements at less than
two meters depth?

• measurements are not affected by 24 hour changes
  in temperature due to solar heat
• works well for identifying thermal anomalies
  where not masked by shallow groundwater aquifers
  (i.e. arid regions like parts of the western
  United States)
• lower impact on landscape and less costly than
  many other types of exploration data
• near real-time results
• valley-wide reconnaissance surveys can be
  conducted in 1-2 weeks

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Previous Work
Hand auger technique (Olmstead, 1977 Le Schack
and Lewis, 1983 Trexler et al., 1982)

• New system developed by Great Basin Center for
  Geothermal Energy
• pilot study at Desert Queen, NV
• (Coolbaugh et al., 2007 Sladek et al., 2007)

• Advantages
• Use of modern equipment significantly increases
  the number of measurements that can be made in a
  day while at the same time reducing the physical
  effort

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System Basics
30 hollow rods
Demolition hammer
1.
3.
Rod extractor
2.
Generator
4.
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System Basics
6.
measure and record after 1 hour equilibration
5.
extract
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Rhodes and Teels Marshes (playas) occur in a
broad right step of the Walker Lane Belt
Previous work by Coolbaugh et al. (2006), Kratt
et al. (2006), and Wesnousky (2005)

• extensional basins
• borate-rich evaporite crusts
• favorable geothermometer temperatures

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Na-K-Ca-Mg 192ºC Quartz 118ºC
65ºC (148 ºF)
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Major structural intersection
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New Directions for 1Research and 2Development
1Long term studies to quantify affects of
seasonal changes, slope, and aspect on two-meter
deep temperature measurements
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New Directions for 1Research and 2Development
2Integrating a rock drill system to penetrate
harder surfaces
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Acknowledgements

• Lisa Shevenell and Great Basin Center for
  Geothermal Energy
• Ormat Technologies, Inc.
• U. S. Department of Energy
• DE-FG07-021ID14311