Preliminary Geothermal Favorability Map of the Great Basin

Table of Contents



IDENTIFICATION_INFORMATION

Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Mark Coolbaugh Originator: Richard Zehner Originator: Corne Kreemer Originator: David Blackwell Originator: Gary Oppliger Originator: Don Sawatzky Originator: Geoff Blewitt Originator: Aasha Pancha Originator: Maria Richards Originator: Catie Helm-Clark Originator: Lisa Shevenell Originator: Gary Raines Originator: Gary Johnson Originator: Tim Minor Originator: Tonya Boyd Publication_Date: 20050505 Title: Preliminary Geothermal Favorability Map of the Great Basin Edition: Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: Map Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Reno, Nevada Publisher: Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy Other_Citation_Details: Blackett, R.E. and Wakefield, S.I., 2002, Geothermal resources of Utah, a digital atlas of Utah's geothermal resources: Utah Geological Survey Open-File Report 397, CD-ROM. Blackwell, D.D. and Richards, M., 2004, Geothermal Map of North America, AAPG, map item number 423, scale 1:6,500,000. Coolbaugh, M.F. and Shevenell, L.A., 2004, A method for estimating undiscovered geothermal resources in Nevada and the Great Basin: Geothermal Resources Council Transactions, v. 28, p. 13-18. Higgins, C.T. and Martin, R.C., 1980, Geothermal resources of California: California Geologic Data Map Series Map No. 4 Mariner, R.H., Presser, T.S., and Evans, W.C., 1983, Geochemistry of active geothermal systems in the northern Basin and Range province: Geothermal Resources Council, Special Report No. 13, p. 95-119. Mitchell, J.C., Johnson, L.L., and Anderson, J.E., 1980, Geothermal investigations in Idaho, Part 9, Potential for direct heat application of geothermal resources: Idaho Department of Water Resources Water Information Bulletin No. 30. Peterson, N.V., Priest, G.R., Black, G.L., Brown, D.E., and Woller, N.M., 1982, Geothermal resources of Oregon: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Prudic, D.E., Harrill, J.R., and Burbey, T.J., 1995, Conceptual evaluation of regional groundwater flow in the carbonate-rock province of the Great Basin, Nevada, Utah, and adjacent states: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1409-D, 102 pp. Raines, G.L., Sawatzky, D.L., and Connor, K.A., Great Basin Geoscience Data Base: USGS Digital Data Series DDS-041. Shevenell, L., Garside, L.J. and Hess, R.H., 2000, Nevada Geothermal Resources: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Map 126. Trexler, D. T., Flynn, T., Koenig, B. A., and Ghusn, G. Jr., 1983, Geothermal resources of Nevada: Map produced by the National Geophysical Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the Geothermal and Hydropower Technologies Division, U.S. Department of Energy, 1 map. Witcher, J.C., Stone, C., and Hahman, W.R., 1982, Geothermal Resources of Arizona: Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Online_Linkage: HTTP://www.unr.edu/Geothermal/ Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Online_Linkage: Description: Abstract: This ESRI real number GRID provides information for assessing regional geothermal potential in the Great Basin. The values provide a ranking of favorability for high-temperature (> 150°C) extensional- type geothermal systems. The favorability calculation is based on a logistic regression posterior probability statistic, with the GRID value being proportional to the log-transformed (posterior logit) logistic regression posterior probability. A total of 51 geothermal systems were used as training sites for weights-of-evidence and logistic regression spatial statistics. These 51 geothermal systems are either producing electrical power today or have geothermometer temperatures ? 150°C. Purpose: This ESRI floating point GRID was developed for a weights of evidence/logistic regression analysis of geothermal potential of the Great Basin (Coolbaugh and others, 2005). Supplemental_Information: Potential Influence of Aquifers: Most known high-temperature geothermal systems in the Great Basin (? 150°C) occur outside regional groundwater aquifers (Fig. 1), including the Snake River Plain and Northwest Basalt aquifers in the northern Great Basin (USGS Principal Aquifers of the US HTTP://nationalatlas.gov/aquifersm.html) and the carbonate aquifer in eastern Nevada and western Utah (Prudic et al., 1995). It is hypothesized that lateral groundwater flow could be capturing and entraining rising thermal fluids in these aquifers, and suppressing the formation of hot springs, thereby rendering those areas less completely explored for geothermal systems than elsewhere in the Great Basin. In order to minimize a potential bias with regard to aquifers in the favorability model, the geological and geophysical maps used as evidence were selected for their ability to model the geothermal potential independent of the presence of those aquifers (at least at economic depths). As a first step, weights-of-evidence and logistic regression model weights for each evidence map were calculated for the non-aquifer areas (Figure 1). Those weights were then used to extrapolate geothermal favorability beneath areas having overlying regional aquifers. The logistic regression model accurately predicted 33 known geothermal training sites in non-aquifer regions, but predicted 24 training sites in the aquifer areas, whereas only 18 are known. This suggests that the regional aquifers may be under-explored relative to non-aquifer areas. It is important to note that this model is not designed to predict undiscovered geothermal systems. The model is meant to predict the relative geothermal favorability within the Great Basin, and significant numbers of undiscovered geothermal systems are likely to occur in both the aquifer and non-aquifer regions (Coolbaugh and Shevenell, 2004). MODEL LAYERS: Six geological/geophysical maps were combined into four evidence layers and were used to model geothermal favorability. A description of each of these four layers follows: 1) Combined Gravity/Topographic Gradient Map (Gary Oppliger; Arthur Brant Laboratory for Exploration Geophysics, University of Nevada, Reno): As a proxy for measuring the effective vertical displacement on late Tertiary and Quaternary faults in the Great Basin, a residual gravity map was combined with a topographic digital elevation model (DEM), and then the total surface slope (horizontal gradient) was calculated. The residual gravity map, a 20-km upward continued residual isostatic gravity anomaly Lisa: remove preceding phrase between the commas, was further reduced by removing bedrock-only regional gravity trends to produce a basins-only gravity anomaly map. This gravity map was converted to an approximate equivalent amount of subsurface basement relief using 60 meters/mgal (equivalent to a density contrast of 0.4 g/cm3), and then added to the 1-km DEM. The combined bedrock surface slope was then calculated by computing the total horizontal gradient for each 1-km cell. Lisa: site reference 2) Combined Global Positioning System (GPS) and Fault Dilation Map (Corné Kreemer, Geoff Blewitt; Nevada Geodetic Laboratory): Crustal dilation rates derived from GPS velocity measurements (interseismic strain) were added to dilation rates calculated from Quaternary fault slip rate data (long-term seismic strain) to produce a more geographically complete estimate of crustal dilation in the Great Basin. The geodetic strain rates were based on 476 GPS velocity measurements located throughout and just outside the Great Basin. These velocities were compiled from multiple networks, including the BARGEN continuous network, multiple USGS campaign networks, and several other groups. Velocities affected by known magmatic/volcanic activity were excluded. A Quaternary faults database, obtained from the USGS Quaternary Fault and Fold Database HTTP://gldims.cr.usgs.gov/qfault/viewer.htm) was updated with more recent slip rate estimates compiled in 1996 and 2002 HTTP://eqhazmaps.usgs.gov/html/faults2002.html). Slip rate parameters were converted to long-term strain rate tensors, from which dilation was calculated for every 20 km square grid cell in the Great Basin. 3) Temperature Gradient Map (David Blackwell, Maria Richards; Southern Methodist University (SMU) Geothermal Laboratory): A shallow crustal (0-1 km) temperature gradient map was generated using the SMU geothermal well database, which includes wells compiled by SMU (http://www.smu.edu/geothermal/), the USGS (Sass et al., 1999; http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/open-file/of99-425/webmaps/home.html), and other sources.  Temperature gradients were derived in a multi-step process beginning with calculation of heat flux at individual wells, interpolation of heat flux between wells to produce heat flux maps (e.g., Blackwell and Richards, 2004), and conversion of the heat flux map to a temperature gradient map using thermal conductivities assigned for grouped geological formations.  Improvements in the spatial resolution of the gradient map in the Great Basin were obtained by assigning separate thermal conductivities to graben-filled Quaternary sediments, basement rocks in horst blocks, and regions of late Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic rocks.  Purposely excluded from the calculations used to make this map were geothermal wells and other wells drilled in known geothermal areas, so that the predicted temperature gradients would be independent of the degree of geothermal exploration 4) Seismicity Map (Aasha Pancha; Nevada Seismological Laboratory): The seismicity map was generated by adding up all historical earthquake magnitudes within a 40 km radius of each grid cell in the model.  The distance from the epicenter to the center of each cell was used to inversely weight individual earthquake magnitudes.  To avoid a bias in the detection of earthquakes near seismograph stations, earthquakes were not included in the seismicity calculation unless they were strong enough to be detected anywhere in the Great Basin.  Earthquakes with a magnitude of ³4.8 were considered strong enough to meet this criterion regardless of the year of occurrence, and Pancha et al. (in review) compiled these earthquakes from multiple catalogs.  Due to improvements in the seismograph network that occurred around 1970, all earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 and greater that occurred during or after 1970 were considered detectable regardless of their epicenter location, and were added to this compilation.  These lower-magnitude earthquakes came from two main catalog sources: the USGS National Earthquake Information Center and the Berkeley Advanced National Seismic System.   Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: Ending_Date: Currentness_Reference: Status: Progress: Complete Maintenance_and_Update_Frequency: As needed Spatial_Domain: Bounding_Coordinates: West_Bounding_Coordinate: -36.6409 East_Bounding_Coordinate: 38.0474 North_Bounding_Coordinate: 52.8136 South_Bounding_Coordinate: 19.7292 Keywords: Theme: Theme_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Theme_Keyword: Dilational Strain Theme_Keyword: Quaternary Faults Theme_Keyword: GPS Theme_Keyword: Geodesy Theme_Keyword: Strain Tensors Theme_Keyword: Weights of Evidence Theme_Keyword: Logistic Regression Theme_Keyword: Temperature Gradient Theme_Keyword: Gravity Gradient Place: Place_Keyword_Thesaurus: None Place_Keyword: Arizona Place_Keyword: California Place_Keyword: Great Basin Place_Keyword: Idaho Place_Keyword: Nevada Place_Keyword: North America Place_Keyword: Oregon Place_Keyword: Utah Place_Keyword: Western United States Place_Keyword: Wyoming Access_Constraints: None Use_Constraints: This spatial information was derived from a variety of sources. Care was taken in the creation of these themes, but they are provided "as is". The Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy, the University of Nevada, Reno or any of the data providers cannot accept any responsibility for errors, omissions, or positional accuracy in the digital data or underlying records. There are no warranties, expressed or implied, accompanying this data set. Point_of_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy Contact_Person: Richard Zehner Contact_Position: Research Scientist, Assistant GIS Specialist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: MS 172, University of Nevada Reno City: Reno State_or_Province: NV Postal_Code: 89557 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 775-784-7055 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 775-327-5801 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: zehner@unr.edu Hours_of_Service: M-F 8-5 Native_Data_Set_Environment: ESRI Grid format  Top

DATA_QUALITY_INFORMATION

Attribute_Accuracy: Attribute_Accuracy_Report: See references for each evidence layer comprising this GRID Logical_Consistency_Report: Completeness_Report: Should be complete Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy: Horizontal_Positional_Accuracy_Report: Unknown Vertical_Positional_Accuracy: Vertical_Positional_Accuracy_Report: Unknown Lineage: Source_Information: Source_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Edition: Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: map Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Other_Citation_Details: REFERENCES: Blackett, R.E. and Wakefield, S.I., 2002, Geothermal resources of Utah, a digital atlas of Utah's geothermal resources: Utah Geological Survey Open-File Report 397, CD-ROM. Blackwell, D.D. and Richards, M., 2004, Geothermal Map of North America, AAPG, map item number 423, scale 1:6,500,000. Coolbaugh, M.F. and Shevenell, L.A., 2004, A method for estimating undiscovered geothermal resources in Nevada and the Great Basin: Geothermal Resources Council Transactions, v. 28, p. 13-18. Higgins, C.T. and Martin, R.C., 1980, Geothermal resources of California: California Geologic Data Map Series Map No. 4 Mariner, R.H., Presser, T.S., and Evans, W.C., 1983, Geochemistry of active geothermal systems in the northern Basin and Range province: Geothermal Resources Council, Special Report No. 13, p. 95-119. Mitchell, J.C., Johnson, L.L., and Anderson, J.E., 1980, Geothermal investigations in Idaho, Part 9, Potential for direct heat application of geothermal resources: Idaho Department of Water Resources Water Information Bulletin No. 30. Peterson, N.V., Priest, G.R., Black, G.L., Brown, D.E., and Woller, N.M., 1982, Geothermal resources of Oregon: Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Prudic, D.E., Harrill, J.R., and Burbey, T.J., 1995, Conceptual evaluation of regional groundwater flow in the carbonate-rock province of the Great Basin, Nevada, Utah, and adjacent states: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1409-D, 102 pp. Raines, G.L., Sawatzky, D.L., and Connor, K.A., Great Basin Geoscience Data Base: USGS Digital Data Series DDS-041. Shevenell, L., Garside, L.J. and Hess, R.H., 2000, Nevada Geothermal Resources: Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Map 126. Trexler, D. T., Flynn, T., Koenig, B. A., and Ghusn, G. Jr., 1983, Geothermal resources of Nevada: Map produced by the National Geophysical Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the Geothermal and Hydropower Technologies Division, U.S. Department of Energy, 1 map. Witcher, J.C., Stone, C., and Hahman, W.R., 1982, Geothermal Resources of Arizona: Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Online_Linkage: Larger_Work_Citation: Citation_Information: Originator: Publication_Date: Title: Publication_Information: Publication_Place: Publisher: Online_Linkage: Source_Scale_Denominator: Type_of_Source_Media: Source_Time_Period_of_Content: Time_Period_Information: Range_of_Dates/Times: Beginning_Date: Ending_Date: Source_Currentness_Reference: Source_Citation_Abbreviation: Source_Contribution: Process_Step: Process_Description: See above and Coolbaugh and others (2005) Source_Used_Citation_Abbreviation: Process_Date: Source_Produced_Citation_Abbreviation: Process_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Person_Primary: Contact_Organization: Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy Contact_Person: Richard Zehner Contact_Position: Research Scientist, Assistant GIS Specialist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: MS 172, University of Nevada Reno City: Reno State_or_Province: NV Postal_Code: 89557 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 775-784-7055 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 775-327-5801 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: zehner@unr.edu Hours_of_Service: M-F 8-5 Top

SPATIAL_DATA_ORGANIZATION_INFORMATION

Direct_Spatial_Reference_Method: Raster Raster_Object_Information: Raster_Object_Type: Grid Cell Row_Count: 3873 Column_Count: 5040 Top

SPATIAL_REFERENCE_INFORMATION

Horizontal_Coordinate_System_Definition: Planar: Map_Projection: Map_Projection_Name: Lambert Conformal Conic Lambert_Conformal_Conic: Standard_Parallel: 33.000000 Standard_Parallel: 45.000000 Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: 0.000000 Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.000000 False_Easting: 0.000000 False_Northing: 0.000000 Standard_Parallel: 33.000000 Standard_Parallel: 45.000000 Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: 0.000000 Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.000000 False_Easting: 0.000000 False_Northing: 0.000000 Planar_Coordinate_Information: Planar_Coordinate_Encoding_Method: Row and column Coordinate_Representation: Abscissa_Resolution: Ordinate_Resolution: Planar_Distance_Units: Meters Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_Datum_Name: North American Datum of 1927 Ellipsoid_Name: Clarke 1866 Semi-major_Axis: 6378206.4000000 Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: 294.98 Top

ENTITY_AND_ATTRIBUTE_INFORMATION

Overview_Description: Entity_and_Attribute_Overview: This real number ESRI GRID file contains probability values measured in log probability. Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation: Top

DISTRIBUTION_INFORMATION

Distributor: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy Contact_Person: Richard Zehner Contact_Position: Research Scientist, Assistant GIS Specialist Contact_Address: Address_Type: mailing and physical address Address: MS 172, University of Nevada Reno City: Reno State_or_Province: NV Postal_Code: 89557 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 775-784-7055 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 775-327-5801 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: zehner@unr.edu Hours_of_Service: M-F 8-5 Resource_Description: Distribution_Liability: This spatial information was derived from a variety of sources. Care was taken in the creation of these themes, but they are provided "as is". The Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy, the University of Nevada, Reno or any of the data providers cannot accept any responsibility for errors, omissions, or positional accuracy in the digital data or underlying records. There are no warranties, expressed or implied, accompanying this data set. Top

METADATA_REFERENCE_INFORMATION

Metadata_Date: 20050505 Metadata_Review_Date: Metadata_Contact: Contact_Information: Contact_Organization_Primary: Contact_Organization: Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy Contact_Person: Richard Zehner Contact_Position: Research Scientist, Assistant GIS Specialist Contact_Address: Address_Type: Mailing and physical address Address: MS 172, University of Nevada Reno City: Reno State_or_Province: NV Postal_Code: 89557 Country: USA Contact_Voice_Telephone: 775-784-7055 Contact_Facsimile_Telephone: 775-327-5801 Contact_Electronic_Mail_Address: zehner@unr.edu Hours_of_Service: M-F 8-5 Metadata_Standard_Name: FGDC CSDGM Metadata_Standard_Version: FGDC-STD-001-1998 Top