Petrologic Considerations for Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Site Selection in the Clear Lake Region, California
- Key words
- Exploration; Hot Dry Rock; USA; California; Clear Lake; Volcanics; Magma; Silica; Tomography; Seismic; Tectonics; K-Ar; Ryolite; Basalt; Mt Konocti; Borax Lake
- Location
- Clear Lake, California; Mt. Konocti, California
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1992
- Session
- Exploration; HDR/EGS; Volcanism; Magmatism; Geological surve
- Language
- English
Abstract
The Clear Lake area is well known for anomalous heat flow, thermal springs, hydrothermal minerals deposits, and Quaternary volcanisms. These factors, along with the apparent lack of a large reservoir of geothermal fluid north of the Collayomi fault make the Clear Lake area an attractive target for hot dry rock (HDR) geothermal development. Petrologic considerations provide some constraints on site selection for HDR development. Spatial and temporal trends in volcanism in the Coast Ranges indicates that magmatism has migrated to the north with time, paralleling passage of the Mendocino triple junction and propagation of the San Andreas fault (Johnson and O'Neil, 1984; Fox et al, 1985). Volcanism in the region may have resulted from upwelling of hot astenosphre along the southern margin of the subducted segment of the Gorda plat (Dickinson and Synder, 1979).
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