A reconnaissance geochemical study of La Primavera geothermal area, Jalisco, Mexico |
| |
| Authors: | Gail A Mahood Alfred H Truesdell Luis A Templos M |
| |
| Abstract: | The Sierra La Primavera, a late Pleistocene rhyolitic caldera complex in Jalisco, México, contains fumaroles and large-discharge 65°C hot springs that are associated with faults related to caldera collapse and to later magma insurgence. The nearly-neutral, sodium bicarbonate, hot springs occur at low elevations at the margins of the complex, whereas the water-rich fumaroles are high and central.The Comisión Federal de Electricidad de México (CFE) has recently drilled two deep holes at the center of the Sierra (PR-1 and Pr-2) and one deep hole at the western margin. Temperatures as high as 285°C were encountered at 1160 m in PR-1, which produced fluids with 820 to 865 mg/kg chloride after flashing to one atmosphere. Nearby, PR-2 encountered temperatures to 307°C at 2000 m and yielded fluids with chloride contents fluctuating between 1100 and 1560 mg/kg after flashing. Neither of the high-temperature wells produced steam in commercial quantities. The well at the western margin of the Sierra produced fluids similar to those from the hot springs. The temperature reached a maximum of 100°C near the surface and decreased to 80°C at 2000 m.Various geothermometers (quartz conductive, Na/K, Na-K-Ca, δ18O(SO4-H2O) and D/H (steam-water) all yield temperatures of 170 ± 20°C when applied to the hot spring waters, suggesting that these spring waters flow from a large shallow reservoir at this temperature. Because the hot springs are much less saline than the fluids recovered in PR-1 and PR-2, the mixed fluid in the shallow reservoir can contain no more than 10–20% deep fluid. This requires that most of the heat is transferred by steam. There is probably a thin vapor-dominated zone in the central part of the Sierra, through which steam and gases are transferred to the overlying shallow reservoir. Fluids from this reservoir cool from 170°C to 65°C by conduction during the 5–7 km of lateral flow to the hot springs. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
