Gaseous Emissions from Steamboat Springs, Brady's Hot Springs, and Desert Peak Geothermal Systems, Nevada

Abstract

Gaseous emissions from the landscape can be used to explore for geothermal systems, characterize their lateral extent, or map the trends of concealed geologic structures that may provide important reservoir permeability at depth. Gaseous geochemical signatures vary from system to system and utilization of a multi-gas analytical approach to exploration or characterization should enhance the survey’s clarity. This paper describes differences in the gaseous geochemical signatures between the Steamboat Springs and Brady’s Hot Springs geothermal systems and illustrates the usefulness of Hg vapor in soils at Desert Peak for mapping the trends of concealed geologic structures. Ion chromatography, gas chromatography, atomic absorption spectrometry, and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry have been used to characterize the gas geochemistry of these systems.