Geophysical Study of the Crust and Upper Mantle Beneath the Central Rio Grande Rift and Adjacent Great Plains and Colorado Plateau

摘要

As part of the national hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal program conducted by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, a regional deep magnetotelluric (MT) survey of Arizona and New Mexico was performed. The main objective of the MT project was to produce a regional geoelectric contour map of the pervasive deep electrical conductor within the crust and/or upper mantle beneath the Colorado Plateau, Basin and Range Province, and Rio Grande rift. Three MT profiles cross the Jemez lineament. Preliminary one-dimensional analysis of the data suggest the lineament is associated with anomalously high electrical conductivity very shallow in the crust. An MT/audiomagnetotelluric (AMT) study of a 161 km exp 2 HDR prospect was performed on the Zuni Indian Reservation, New Mexico. Two-dimensional gravity modeling of a 700-km gravity profile at 34 exp 0 30'N latitude was used to study the crust and upper mantle beneath the Rio Grande rift. Several models of each of three consecutive layers were produced using all available geologic and geophysical constraints. Two short-wavelength anomalies along the gravity profile were analyzed using linear optimization techniques. (ERA citation 06:016737)