Application of scientific core drilling to geothermal exploration: Platanares, Honduras and Tecuamburro Volcano, Guatemala, Central America
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
- Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Our efforts in Honduras and Guatemala were part of the Central America Energy Resource Project (CAERP) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (AID). Exploration core drilling operations at the Platanares, Honduras and Tecuamburro Volcano, Guatemala sites were part of a geothermal assessment for the national utility companies of these countries to locate and evaluate their geothermal resources for electrical power generation. In Honduras, country-wide assessment of all thermal areas determined that Platanares was the site with the greatest geothermal potential. In late 1986 to middle 1987, three slim core holes were drilled at Platanares to a maximum depth of 680 m and a maximum temperature of 165{degree}C. The objectives were to obtain information on the geothermal gradient, hydrothermal alterations, fracturing, and possible inflows of hydrothermal fluids. Two holes produced copious amounts of water under artesian conditions and a total of 8 MW(t) of energy. Geothermal investigations in Guatemala focused on the Tecuamburro Volcano geothermal site. The results of surface geological, volcanological, hydrogeochemical, and geophysical studies at Tecuamburro Volcano indicated a substantial shallow heat source. In early 1990 we drilled one core hole, TCB-1, to 808 m depth. The measured bottom hole temperature was 238{degree}C. Although the borehole did not flow, in-situ samples indicate the hole is completed in a vapor-zone above a probable 300{degree}C geothermal reservoir.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 10139166
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-94-739; CONF-940490-1; ON: DE94009295
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 7. international symposium on the observation of the continental crust through drilling: continental processes - a decade of drilling discoveries,Santa Fe, NM (United States),25-30 Apr 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1994]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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