Implications of Fission-Track Annealing for Geothermal Models in the Pacific Northwest. Technical Progress Report

摘要

A fission-track dating lab has been set up. Samples have been obtained from fossil and active geothermal systems and are in the process of being separated, counted and dated with subsequent modeling planned. The thermal model of horizontal flow in a geothermal aquifer is being prepared. Modeling of magma systems and regional thermal evolution has been confined to studies of the Rio Grande Rift and the deep holes at the Fenton Hill Dry Hot Rock locality at the edge of the Valles caldera. Samples have been obtained from one deep hole in a sedimentary basin, the western Snake River basin in eastern Oregon. These samples are being separated so that the fission-track annealing can be studied. Studies of the systematics of fission-track fading are in progress. Several models have been investigated to explain the existing fission-track fading data, and several annealing experiments are planned. The use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for direct observation of fission-track fading has been investigated. (ERA citation 07:062926)