Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Depth predictions of chemical geothermometers estimated using a three-dimensonal temperature model in the Great Basin, USA

January 13, 2025
Recent work in the Great Basin region of the western United States has made it possible to predict the depth of hydrothermal reservoirs (i.e., the depth at which heat is accumulated prior to ascent via hydrothermal upflow) identified through geochemistry and to contextualize the spatial patterns of these reservoir depths. Chemical geothermometers use the chemical and mineral constituents of hydrothermal fluids to predict the temperature at which fluids equilibrated with the host rocks at depth. Assuming that most of the Great Basin is dominated by conductive conditions until a vertically connected hydrothermal flow path is created (e.g., by faulting), geothermometers reflect the chemical and thermal conditions at the depth interval that the fluid has conductively equilibrated over a long period before a vertical conduit allows convective upflow. By pairing geothermometer temperature estimates with our recent three-dimensional temperature model of conductive heat flow in the Great Basin, we estimate the corresponding reservoir depths and construct a map of circulation depths. The predicted depths from geothermometers have spatial patterns across the Great Basin that relate to patterns seen in other geologic and geophysical data. Deeper springs generally occur disproportionately in areas with higher strain rates and in basins. We posit that current elevated strain rates reflect patterns of historic deformation where ongoing tectonic activity maintains permeable pathways to deeper reservoirs, some of which are estimated to exceed 6 km depth. Basins, as expected, contain a disproportionate number of these deep systems, because the underlying aquifers are closer to the surface in basins, thus requiring less water pressure to reach the surface than in mountain ranges. Most springs estimated to have their source in a deep reservoir occur at places known to host a hydrothermal system; these refined depth estimates of the source reservoir can help to better constrain the source depth for many known hydrothermal systems across the Great Basin.
Publication Year 2025
Title Depth predictions of chemical geothermometers estimated using a three-dimensonal temperature model in the Great Basin, USA
DOI 10.5066/P14B8XOH
Authors Jacob DeAngelo, Erick Burns, Stanley P Mordensky
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
USGS Organization Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Rights This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal
Was this page helpful?