Appraisal study of the geothermal resources of Arizona and adjacent areas in New Mexico and Utah and their value for desalination and other uses

Technical Report · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6350674· OSTI ID:6350674

Callender, J F; Swanberg, C A; Morgan, P; Stoyer, C H; Witcher, J C

An appraisal investigation of the geothermal resources of a portion of the Lower Colorado River Region of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is reported. The study area includes most of Arizona, part of western New Mexico west of the continental divide, and a small part of southwestern Utah. Almost 300 water samples have been collected from the study area and chemically analyzed. These samples include hot wells and springs in addition to nearby nonthermal waters to help establish background chemistry. Further, almost 10,000 chemical analyses of groundwaters were obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey's water quality file. Routine geothermal interpretative techniques were then applied to these chemical data to identify geothermal anomalies which might indicate the presence of exploitable geothermal resources. These geochemical anomalies were then evaluated in terms of available geophysical data such as heat flow, gravity, magnetics, basement linears, earthquake epicentral locations, depth of sedimentary basins, quaternary volcanics, recent fault scarps, etc. to further delineate the size and shape of the prospective geothermal sites and help establish their production potential.

• Research Organization: New Mexico Univ., Albuquerque (USA). Dept. of Geology; New Mexico State Univ., Las Cruces (USA). Dept. of Physics and Earth Sciences
• OSTI ID: 6350674
• Report Number(s): NMEI-6-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
ARIZONA
GEOCHEMICAL SURVEYS
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES
GEOTHERMAL WELLS
HOT SPRINGS
GEOCHEMISTRY
NEW MEXICO
SILICA
GEOTHERMOMETRY
THERMAL WATERS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
UTAH
DESALINATION
EARTHQUAKES
GEOLOGY
GRAVITY SURVEYS
HEAT FLOW
MAGNETIC SURVEYS
SIZE
WELLS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMISTRY
DEMINERALIZATION
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RESOURCES
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
SEISMIC EVENTS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON OXIDES
SOUTHWEST REGION
THERMAL SPRINGS
USA
WESTERN REGION
Geothermal Legacy
150101* - Geothermal Energy- Resources & Availability- USA- (-1989)
150300 - Geothermal Exploration & Exploration Technology