The Use of Air as a Natural Tracer in Fractured Hydrothermal Systems. Los Azufres, Mexico, Case Study

Abstract

Injection of atmospheric air mixed with cold water has been occurring since 1982 at the Los Azufres geothermal field. Several chemical and thermodynamical evidences show that air injection into this fractured hydrothermal system could be considered as a long term natural tracer test. Nitrogen and Argon separated from the air mixture migrate, under the action of the induced injectionextraction gradient, from reinjection sectors to production zones following preferential paths closely related to high permeability conduits. A coarse numerical estimation of the average permeability tensor existing at Tejamaniles, the southern sector, explains the unsuccessful recovery of the artificial tracer tests performed in past years: the anisotropic nature of the fractured volcanic rock would demand considerably quantities of tracer in order to be detected at the producing wells, especially when fluid extraction was low. At the same time concentrations of calcium, cesium, chloride, potassium, rubidium and sodium, are increasing in the liquid produced by the oldest wells of this fieldís sector.