Geothermal potential of small sub-volcanic intrusions in a typical Icelandic caldera setting

International audience Geothermal exploration targets large magmatic intrusions as heat sources because of their size, longevity, and amount of stored energy, but as shallow volcanic plumbing systems comprise numerous smaller intrusions, their geothermal potential warrants consideration. Here, we ev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Volcanica
Main Authors: Burchardt, Steffi, Bazargan, Mohsen, Bessi Gestsson, Einar, Hieronymus, Christoph, Ronchin, Erika, Tuffen, Hugh, Heap, Michael, Davidson, Jonathan, Kennedy, Ben, Hobé, Alex, Saubin, Elodie
Other Authors: Institut Terre Environnement Strasbourg (ITES), École Nationale du Génie de l'Eau et de l'Environnement de Strasbourg (ENGEES)-Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2022
Subjects:
[SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]
Krafla
Iceland
Online Access:https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03915051
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03915051/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03915051/file/Burchardt-et-al_2022_Volcanica.pdf
https://doi.org/10.30909/vol.05.02.477507
Description
Summary:International audience Geothermal exploration targets large magmatic intrusions as heat sources because of their size, longevity, and amount of stored energy, but as shallow volcanic plumbing systems comprise numerous smaller intrusions, their geothermal potential warrants consideration. Here, we evaluate the geothermal impact of dykes and sills on caldera-infill rocks. We present geological data and geothermometry on intrusions in the eroded Breiðuvík caldera in Northeast Iceland, which serves as an analogue to the active, and geothermally exploited, Krafla volcano. These data inform 2D finite element models of dyke and sill intrusions that consider heat transfer in porous media. Our results indicate that small intrusions create considerable thermal anomalies in their immediate vicinity. These anomalies are larger-magnitude and longer-lasting for individual thick sills and dykes, but networks of smaller sills and dykes emplaced close in time and space can create more widespread thermal anomalies that may be viable economic targets for decades after their emplacement.

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