Sea water - basalt interactions and genesis of the coastal thermal waters of Maharashtra, India

Conference · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1986 · Geothermics; (United States)

OSTI ID:5830859

Muthuraman, K

The thermal waters close to the western coastal belt of India (in Maharashtra State) generally discharge Na-Ca-Cl and Ca-Na-Cl types of waters through the basic lava flows of late Cretaceous-early Tertiary age. Experimental work to study the reactions between the dilute sea water and basalt conducted in static autoclaves at selected elevated temperatures, indicates the possibility of producing chloride waters with relatively high calcium, similar to these thermal waters. In view of the increase in Ca in the resultant solutions during sea water-basalt reactions at elevated temperatures, the base temperatures computed by Na-K-Ca geothermometry would be far lower than the actual temperatures of the system. At lower temperatures (around 100/sup 0/C) absorption by K by basalt is possible and, hence, alkali geothermometry also may not be reliable for such systems. Anhydrite saturation temperature seems to be a reliable geothermometer for such coastal thermal water systems involving a sea water component. The results of the computer processing of the chemistry of some of these thermal waters using ''WATEQ'' are discussed. Two of these waters are oversaturated with diopside, tremolite, calcite and aragonite, indicating a rather low temperature of origin. In two other cases, interaction with ultramafic rocks is indicated, as these waters are oversaturated with diopside, tremolite, talc, chrysotile, sepiolite and its precipitate. There is no clear evidence to show that the thermal waters of the west coast of India emerge directly from either marine evaporites or oil field waters. It is proposed that the majority of these thermal waters should have originated through interaction of an admixture of sea water and meteoric water with the local basalt flows at some elevated temperatures.

• Research Organization: Special Projects (Geothermal), GSI Avinash 46, Ramdaspeth, Nagpur-440010
• OSTI ID: 5830859
• Report Number(s): CONF-8511290-
• Journal Information: Geothermics; (United States), Vol. 15:5/6; Conference: 1. Afro-Asian geothermal seminar, Chiang-Mai, Thailand, 4 Nov 1985
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
HOT-WATER SYSTEMS
GEOCHEMISTRY
GEOLOGY
INDIA
THERMAL WATERS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
BASALT
CHLORIDES
COASTAL REGIONS
CRETACEOUS PERIOD
EVAPORITES
GEOTHERMOMETRY
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
MINERALS
ORIGIN
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
SEAWATER
SODIUM
TERTIARY PERIOD
ALKALI METALS
ASIA
CENOZOIC ERA
CHEMISTRY
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SYSTEMS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROTHERMAL SYSTEMS
IGNEOUS ROCKS
MESOZOIC ERA
METALS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
ROCKS
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
VOLCANIC ROCKS
WATER
150202* - Geology & Hydrology of Geothermal Systems- Non-USA- (-1989)
152003 - Geothermal Data & Theory- Rock-Water-Gas Interactions