Assessment of the Bouillante Geothermal Field (Guadeloupe, French West Indies): Toward a Conceptual Model of the High Temperature Geothermal System

Abstract

The Bouillante geothermal field is located on the west coast of the French West Indies island of Guadeloupe (France, Lesser Antilles). The large range of scientific (geology, geochemistry, geophysics, hydrogeology) results obtained over the last 10 years on this field have made it possible to develop an innovative conceptual model of this high-temperature geothermal system; a reference for island-arc environments. The model highlights the major influence of structural control on the development of the recent volcanism and subsequent geothermal activity at different scales, and also explores new ideas concerning the Bouillante system in terms of heat source, deep fluid flow and reservoir geometry. In addition, a spatio-temporal scenario takes into account all events from the early magmatic activity of the Bouillante volcanic Chain complex (estimated at ~0.5 Ma) up to the development of the geothermal field some 200,000 years later.