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Developing a Framework for the Purposes of Locating Undiscovered Hydrogeologic Windows

Sutula, Glenn Eric
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1462458460

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Environmental Science.
In this project I worked with a team of analysts, and together we sought to develop new ways to analyze geologic, geochemical, and geophysical data that would increase the prospects of geothermal exploration and development. We collected, organized, and analyzed data sets from southwest New Mexico in the context of an integrated framework that combines the data sets for various signatures of a geothermal resource into a cohesive analysis of the presence of heat, fluid, and permeability. We incorporated data sets on structural characteristics (earthquakes, geophysical logs, fault location and age, basement depth), surface topography, water table elevation, conservative ion concentrations, and thermal information (heat flow, bottom hole temperature, discharge temperature, and basement heat generation). These data sets were combined to create maps that indicate structural analysis, slope, geothermometry, and heat. We also mapped discharge areas (to constrain elevations where groundwater may be discharged through modern thermal springs or paleo-thermal springs) and subcrops: possible erosionally- or structurally-controlled breaches in regional-scale aquitards that form the basis of our hydrogeologic windows concept. These two maps were particularly useful in identifying known geothermal systems and narrowing the search for unknown geothermal prospects. I further refined the “prospectivity” of the areas within the subcrops and discharge areas by developing and applying a new method for spatial association analysis to data on known and inferred faults, earthquakes, geochemical thermometers, and heat flow. This spatial association analysis method determines the relationships of the location and magnitudes of observations of these data with known geothermal sites. The results of each of the six spatial association analyses were weighted between 0 and 1 and summed to produce a prospectivity score between 0 and a theoretical maximum of 9, with 9 indicating highest geothermal potential. The mean value of prospectivity for all regions with positive prospectivity inside subcrops and discharge areas was 1.83 (standard deviation = 0.75), whereas this mean prospectivity for known geothermal sites was 3.07 (standard deviation = 0.90). These results suggest that our prospectivity analysis using our integrated framework and the hydrogeologic windows concept is useful for identifying known and potential geothermal resources. The prospectivity approach also substantially increases the number of known geothermal resources per km2 (from 0.004 at prospectivity > 0 to 0.016 at prospectivity > 3), suggesting that limiting an exploration area to regions with high prospectivity scores could reduce exploration costs. Comparing this method to more simplistic methods such as using only heat flow, or using a presence-absence metric for signatures, revealed that this method consistently had a higher density of resources in the top quintile for prospectivity. Using our prospectivity and data availability maps, we identified nine sites for further data collection and analysis: Rincon, Lordsburg, Mud Springs, Gillis Hot Well, Goodsight, Cliff-Riverside, Rio Salado/Lucero, Cañada Alamosa, and the Northern Little Florida Mountains.
Jeffrey Bielicki, Prof. (Advisor)
Gajan Sivandran, Prof. (Committee Member)
Desheng Liu, Prof. (Committee Member)
127 p.
Environmental Science
geothermal; hydrogeologic window; New Mexico; spatial statistics; Ripleys K

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sutula, G. E. (2016). Developing a Framework for the Purposes of Locating Undiscovered Hydrogeologic Windows [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1462458460

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sutula, Glenn. Developing a Framework for the Purposes of Locating Undiscovered Hydrogeologic Windows. 2016. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1462458460.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sutula, Glenn. "Developing a Framework for the Purposes of Locating Undiscovered Hydrogeologic Windows." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1462458460

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1462458460
232
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.