The Sulphur Springs Hydrothermal System, Past and Present: Initial Results from Continental Scientific Drilling Program Corehole VC-2B, Valles Caldera, New Mexico
- Key words
- Exploration; Drilling; USA; New Mexico; Sandoval; Valles; Drilling; Geology; Fluid Inclusions; Alteration; Faults; Lithology; Temperature Gradients; Mineralization
- Location
- Valles Caldera, New Mexico
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1989
- Session
- Exploration; Geological surveys; Fluid inclusions; Hydrother
- Language
- English
Abstract
Diverse, variably fractured, Precambrian to Pleistocene rocks penetrated by scientific core hole VC-2B (TD 1762 m; bottom hole temperature 295°C) bear witness to complex interaction with high temperature hydrothermal fluids . Whereas high level Pleistocene ignimbrites and deep Precambrian quartz monzonite in VC-2B are extensively altered and hydrothermally veined, intervening Paleozoic strata apparently remain relatively fresh. Fluid inclusion microthermometry indicated that past (and perhaps contemporary) deep fluids were (are?) hotter and much more saline than those circulating at higher elevations. These deep fluids may have been confined principally beneath the thigh Paleozoic sequence, only locally mixing with the more dilute fluids of shallower levels.
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