Preliminary Site Assessment of the Redfield Campus, Reno, Nevada, USA

Abstract

To develop a foundation to support future geothermal potential assessment on the Redfield campus property, this project compiled a GIS with the framework coming from existing geologic, hydrologic, and geoscience information. Along with the GIS, an InSAR deformation study was conducted from a suite of previously created interferograms from 1993-2005. Geochemical data were also re-evaluated in the context of fault controlled flow paths and the InSAR data results. Estimates of vertical and horizontal surface displacements associated with production of geothermal fluids were quantified with elastic modeling of InSAR responses. The distributed horizontal surface displacement gradient (strain) rates over the Redfield campus area appear to be too small (<15 ppm/year) to affect campus structures. Gradients in the vertical InSAR pattern corresponded well to the drilling defined reservoir boundaries - a relation consistent with gradual temperature change inside a structurally isolated reservoir. However, outside the reservoir boundaries, the InSAR surface displacement patterns were not robust and failed to show a consistent correlation with the mapped faults which have been interpreted as conduits associated with well water chemistry changes in specific wells.