Boom and Bust with the Latest 2m Temperature Surveys: Dead Horse Wells, Hawthorne Army Depot, Terraced Hills, and Other Areas in Nevada

摘要

New examples of the use of two-meter temperature (2m) surveys to quickly and inexpensively reveal blind geothermal systems were documented at Dead Horse Wells, the Hawthorne Army Depot, and Emerson Pass, all located in Nevada. In addition, more than 100 new 2m measurements at Astor Pass, Nevada resolved additional details of near-surface thermal outflow in this blind geothermal system. And at Columbus Salt Marsh, Nevada, additional 2m measurements better defined the shape of a blind, shallow thermal anomaly; also at this location deeper temperature measurements were used to develop a near-surface temperature gradient. 2m surveys in three other basins south of Hawthorne, NV in the Walker Lane Belt did not identify thermal anomalies.At Dead Horse Wells, Mineral County, Nevada, 2m temperatures greater than 37°C (99°F) were measured over a distance of more than 1.5 km, and lower level anomalous temperatures extend for a distance of 5.5 km. The long axis of this thermal anomaly is oriented in an east-northeast direction and is at least 2 km wide.Near Hawthorne, Mineral County, Nevada, 2m surveys delineated three separate temperature anomalies. Most significantly, the surveys identified a previously unknown, 1.8-km-long, higher-temperature extension (possibly the primary upwelling zone) of a 10-km-long 2m anomaly originally discovered in the early 1980s along the northwestern margin of the Garfield Hills. The surveys also improved the delineation of a 6.5-km-long shallow thermal outflow zone previously identified from shallow well drilling west of the town of Hawthorne. A third 2m anomaly at the Hawthorne Army Depot envelopes a north-northeast-trending, 4-km-long zone of carbonate tufa towers in the southeastern portion of the Walker Lake Valley.A new geothermal system was identified from 2m measurements at Emerson Pass on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation