Preliminary Report on the Feasibility of Using Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry to Image Localized Strain as a Discriminator of Geothermal Resources
Most producing geothermal fields and known geothermal resources in the Basin and Range province are associated with Quaternary active fault systems, within which hydrothermal fluids are presumed to circulate from depth to relatively shallow production levels through high permeability fractures. Research at the Dixie Valley field by Barton et al. (1997) indicates that hydraulically conductive fractures within the Stillwater fault zone are those that have orientations such that the fractures are critically stressed for normal shear failure under the regional tectonic stress field. In general, therefore, we might expect geothermal resources to occur in areas of high inter-seismic strain accumulation, and where faults are favorably oriented with respect to the regional strain tensor; in the case of Basin and Range normal faults, these would generally be faults striking normal to the direction of maximum extension. Expanding this hypothesis, Blewitt et al. (2003), based on preliminary, broad-scale analysis of regional strain and average fault strike in the northwestern Basin and Range, have proposed that geothermal resources occur in areas where fault-normal extension associated with shear strain is the greatest. Caskey and Wesnousky (2000) presented evidence that the Dixie Valley field occupies a 10 km-long gap between prehistoric Holocene ruptures of the fault segments on either side. Modeled maximum shear and Coulomb failure stress are high within the gap owing to the stress concentrations at the ends of the ruptures. These results suggest that a major contributing factor to the enhanced permeability at fault-hosted geothermal systems may be localized stress and strain concentrations within fault zone segments. This notion is generally consistent with the common occurrence of geothermal fields within fault offsets (pull-aparts) along strike-slip fault systems, where the local strain field has a large extensional component (e.g., Salton Sea and Coso). Blewitt et al. (2003) suggested that resources correlate with abrupt changes in fault orientation and with changes in the direction of extensional strain.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 877907
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-TR-213040; TRN: US200608%%640
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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