Light hydrocarbons as redox and temperature indicators in the geothermal field of El Tatio (northern Chile) |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Geology, Andean Geothermal Center of Excellence (CEGA), Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Plaza Ercilla 803, Santiago, Chile;2. Department of Earth Sciences, Universidad de Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna 12, Zaragoza, Spain;3. Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences, Universidad de Granada-CSIC, Fuente Nueva s/n, Granada, Spain;1. Department of Geology and Andean Geothermal Center of Excellence (CEGA), Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Plaza Ercilla 803, Santiago, Chile;2. Departamento de Mineralogía y Petrología and Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Granada-CSIC, Avenida Fuentenueva, 18002 Granada, Spain;3. Energía Andina S.A, Cerro El Plomo 5630, Santiago, Chile;1. McGill University, Montreal, Canada;2. OVSICORI, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica;3. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA;4. GasLAB, CICANUM, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica;5. INFICON Inc., Syracuse, NY, USA;1. Università degli Studi di Palermo, Dipartimento della Terra e del Mare, via Archirafi, 36, 90123 Palermo, Italy;2. National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Geology and Geoenvironment, Panepistimioupolis, Ano Ilissia, 15784 Athens, Greece;3. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, via Ugo la Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy;4. Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento della Terra, via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Florence, Italy |
| |
| Abstract: | El Tatio (northern Chile), one of the largest geothermal fields of South America, is presently undergoing a new program of geothermal exploration, after the failure of the first exploration phase in the early 1970s. The geochemical features of the fluid discharges characterizing this system mainly consist of boiling pools and fumaroles, and represent the result of a complex mixing process involving 3 main components: (i) hydrothermal; (ii) atmospheric; (iii) magmatic. Chemical reactions involving light hydrocarbons equilibrate at higher temperature than those directly measured in the geothermal wells and calculated on the basis of the composition of the inorganic gas species. This suggests that in the deeper parts of the hydrothermal system temperatures higher than 300 °C may be achieved. Such results can have a strong impact for the evaluation of the potential resources of this geothermal system. Moreover, the chemical characteristics of the organic gas fraction allow the assessment of the chemical–physical conditions governing the geochemical processes acting on geothermal fluids at depth. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
