WATCH Automator: an Excel Based Data Processor for Multiple Geochemical Samples

Abstract

WATCH, originally developed by University of Iceland, is a computer program which is used to combine steam and water samples collected at surface and calculate the downhole geothermal fluid chemistry such as pH, aqueous speciation, mineral saturations, gas and liquid composition and pressures. However, the manual line by line entry of input parameters and text output make the process of both running the software and reading outputs cumbersome. To address this limitation, WATCH Automator, a Microsoft Excel-based program has been developed to interface with the latest version WATCH (version 2.4., 2010). The Automator speeds up the interpretation of geochemical well data. The input parameters are transferred from an existing geochemistry database to WATCH and key output results, such as saturation indices of calcite and silica, are extracted and plotted. Moreover, the WATCH automator has the capability to process multiple samples, which enables the historical chemical trends of a geothermal well to be efficiently analysed.