Results of a detailed gravity survey in the Alamosa Area, Alamosa County, Colorado
A total of 322 stations, centered on the City of Alamosa, were surveyed with a gravimeter during September 1981. These data have shown the Alamosa horst to have an irregular top. This irregularity is thought to be caused by paleovalleys and/or down-dropped fault blocks within the Precambrian horst. The City of Alamosa lies directly over a local gravity low. Volcanic rocks within this low may contain a reservoir for geothermal fluids, as yet unsubstantiated by drilling. Thermal fluids are thought to enter the Alamosa area via aquifers from the west (San Juan Mountains) and/or from the Rio Grande Rift zone with the fluids rising along fractures within and bordering the horst. The most favorable drilling targets appear to be either near the center of the local gravity low or in the fracture zone at the edges of the inferred down-dropped fault blocks.
- Research Organization:
- Utah Univ., Salt Lake City (USA). Earth Science Lab.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-79ID12079
- OSTI ID:
- 6979261
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ID/12079-109; ESL-126; ON: DE84012188
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Portions are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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