Low-Temperature Geothermal Potential of the Ojo Caliente Warm Springs Area, Northern New Mexico

摘要

A detailed geochemical investigation of 17 waters (thermal and cold, mineralized and dilute) was performed in the Ojo Caliente-La Madera area. Two types of thermomineral waters have separate and distinctive geologic, geochemical, and geothermal characteristics. The water from Ojo Caliente Resort emerges with temperatures less than or equal to 54 exp 0 C from a Precambrian metarhyolite. Its chemistry, typically Na-HCO sub 3 , has a total mineralization of 3600 mg/l. Isotopic studies have shown that the thermal water emerges from the springs and a hot well without significant mixing with the cold shallow aquifer of the valley alluvium. However, the cold aquifer adjacent to the resort does contain varying amounts of thermal water that originates from the warm spring system. Geothermometry calculations indicate that the thermal water may be as hot as 85 exp 0 C at depth before its ascent toward surface. Thermodynamic computations on the reaction states of numerous mineral phases suggest that the thermal water will not cause major scaling problems if the hot water is utilized for direct-use geothermal applications. By means of a network of very shallow holes, temperature and electrical conductivity anomalies have been found elsewhere in the valley around Ojo Caliente, and resistivity soundings have confirmed the presence of a plume of thermal water entering the shallow aquifer. The group of lukewarm springs around La Madera, with temperatures less than or equal to 29 exp 0 C, chemical type of NaCaMg-HCO sub 3 Cl and with a total mineralization less than or equal to 1500 mg/l behaves as a different system without any apparent relation to the Ojo Caliente system. Its temperature at depth is not believed to exceed 35 to 40 exp 0 C. (ERA citation 09:032961)