A Web Application Designed to Publish Information of Surface Manifestations of Hydrothermal Systems of Colombia

Abstract

The Colombian Geological Survey (SGC, for its acronym in Spanish) developed a Web application for public search information on surface manifestations of hydrothermal systems, particularly hot springs and fumaroles. This application was developed as a means to provide information to the general public, national industry users and researchers in geothermal exploration, tectonics, geochemistry of hydrothermal fluids, geochemical monitoring of volcanic activity and microbiology. Additionally, the application aims to encourage interaction and discussion of researchers on geochemistry of volcanic and hydrothermal fluids to strengthen this line research in the SGC. The information of the surface manifestations, made available through this application, includes general data on geographical and geological location, in situ physicochemical features, images (pictures and videos), availability of spa infrastructure, paths, as well as chemical and isotope composition of the liquid and gas phase. The main functions of the application include displaying of information, selection of variables and, report generation for downloading on pdf files type, for general, geological and geochemical queries. The geochemical module includes the option of charting the most used diagrams for gas and water geochemical interpretation (relative triangular composition diagrams, Stiff, Schoeller, Piper and X-Y charts, including time series). This will be updated periodically, with expanded coverage analysis in liquid and gas phases. The loaded information includes individual records for 300 hot springs (and 11 fumaroles) located at Andean, Caribbean and Pacific regions, mainly, most of them related with volcanoes. In some of these, historical records taken from the review of information are included. The great diversity in chemical composition found in these hot springs sources is expressed in their physicochemical characteristics: highest temperature above 90 °C, pH between 1.2 and 9.7 and highest electrical conductivity above 50,000 uS/cm.