The Lassen hydrothermal system

The active Lassen hydrothermal system includes a central vapor-dominated zone or zones beneath the Lassen highlands underlain by ~240 °C high-chloride waters that discharge at lower elevations. It is the best-exposed and largest hydrothermal system in the Cascade Range, discharging 41 ± 10 kg/s of steam (~115 MW) and 23 ± 2 kg/s of high-chloride waters (~27 MW). The Lassen system accounts for a full 1/3 of the total high-temperature hydrothermal heat discharge in the U.S. Cascades (140/400 MW). Hydrothermal heat discharge of ~140 MW can be supported by crystallization and cooling of silicic magma at a rate of ~2400 km³/Ma, and the ongoing rates of heat and magmatic CO₂ discharge are broadly consistent with a petrologic model for basalt-driven magmatic evolution. The clustering of observed seismicity at ~4–5 km depth may define zones of thermal cracking where the hydrothermal system mines heat from near-plastic rock. If so, the combined areal extent of the primary heat-transfer zones is ~5 km², the average conductive heat flux over that area is >25 W/m², and the conductive-boundary length