Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Geodetic measurements and numerical models of transient deformation at Raft River geothermal field, Idaho, USA

Journal Article · · Geothermics
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); AIR-Worldwide, Boston, MA (United States); University of Wisconsin-Madison
  2. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
  3. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
  4. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
  5. US Geothermal Inc., Boise, ID (United States)
  6. Temple Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Here, we perform synthetic aperture radar interferometry using data acquired between 2004 and 2016 by the Envisat, and ALOS-2 satellite missions to measure transient deformation at the Raft River geothermal field in Cassia County in Southern Idaho where geothermal production began in late 2007. Time-series analysis of multiple interferometric pairs indicates uplift at an exponentially decaying rate, over an ~8 km-by-5 km area centered near three injection wells that recycle produced brine. Similarly, subsidence at an exponentially decaying rate is observed in a 4 km-by-4 km area west of the production wells. These two signatures stay in the same location in all of the well-correlated Envisat interferometric pairs spanning the time interval between 2007 and 2010. The boundary separating the uplifting and subsiding areas is associated with the steeply dipping Bridge fault zone. Using two-dimensional numerical models, we explore first-order, bi-directional coupling between hydrological and mechanical processes. Our results suggest that: (i) most of the deformation occurs due to pore pressure changes following the start of geothermal production, (ii) the rate of deformation decays to zero over a time scale on the order of ~5 years as the system reaches steady state, and (iii) a reservoir-scale permeability of the order of ~1E–14 m2 is required to explain the transient deformation.
Research Organization:
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Geothermal Technologies Office (EE-4G)
Grant/Contract Number:
EE0005510; EE0006760
OSTI ID:
1630100
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1693607
Journal Information:
Geothermics, Journal Name: Geothermics Journal Issue: C Vol. 74; ISSN 0375-6505
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (13)

Monitoring deformation at the Geysers Geothermal Field, California using C-band and X-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar: INSAR MONITORING AT THE GEYSERS GEOTHERMAL FIELD journal June 2013
The Northwest Geysers EGS Demonstration Project, California: Pre-stimulation Modeling and Interpretation of the Stimulation journal October 2013
Benchmarking Defmod, an open source FEM code for modeling episodic fault rupture journal March 2017
Fluid geochemistry at the Raft River geothermal field, Idaho, USA: New data and hydrogeological implications journal July 2013
Time-series analysis of surface deformation at Brady Hot Springs geothermal field (Nevada) using interferometric synthetic aperture radar journal May 2016
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission journal January 2007
Open radar interferometry software for mapping surface Deformation journal July 2011
Subsidence at The Geysers Geothermal Field, N. California from a comparison of GPS and leveling surveys journal July 1997
Radar interferometry and its application to changes in the Earth's surface journal November 1998
Geodetic measurements and numerical models of rifting in Northern Iceland for 1993–2008 journal January 2014
ENVISAT ASAR data reduction: impact on SAR interferometry journal March 1998
Two-dimensional phase unwrapping with use of statistical models for cost functions in nonlinear optimization journal January 2001
Internal deformation due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space journal April 1992

Cited By (3)

Wastewater leakage in West Texas revealed by satellite radar imagery and numerical modeling journal October 2019
Inferring Geothermal Reservoir Processes at the Raft River Geothermal Field, Idaho, USA, Through Modeling InSAR-Measured Surface Deformation journal May 2018
Spatio–Temporal Analysis of Deformation at San Emidio Geothermal Field, Nevada, USA Between 1992 and 2010 journal August 2019

Similar Records

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
InSAR