--> Abstract: Geothermal Potential of Southwest Utah, by R. E. Blackett and H. P. Ross; #90993 (1993).

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BLACKETT, ROBERT E., Utah Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, UT, and HOWARD P. ROSS, University of Utah Research Institute, Salt Lake City, UT

ABSTRACT: Geothermal Potential of Southwest Utah

The Sevier, Black Rock, and Escalante deserts of southwestern Utah contain all of Utah's known moderate- and high-temperature (>100 degrees C) geothermal systems. Favorable conditions include abundant faults, active seismicity, and high regional heat flow, and it is likely that undiscovered, concealed systems are present. Late Cretaceous (Sevier orogeny) thrust faults and Miocene and younger basin-and-range normal faults are potential conduits for geothermal fluids. Basin-and-range extensional faults trend generally north-south, subparallel to alignments of Pliocene-Holocene basaltic centers. A regional detachment surface beneath the Sevier and Black Rock deserts dips gently westward and separates shallow (<5 km) extensional structures from deeper, pre-basin-and-range structures

Studies at a concealed geothermal area near Newcastle revealed a well-defined, self-potential (SP) minimum (-108 mV) coincident with a heat-flow high and the intersection of major faults. The likelihood that this observed SP minimum results from upward-flowing geothermal fluid prompted similar studies at other undeveloped geothermal areas in the region. An SP survey at Wood's Ranch, a concealed geothermal system in northwestern Iron County, revealed a broad northeast-oriented (-59 mV) SP minimum. Well-defined SP minima also were recorded at Thermo Hot Springs (-100 mV) near the town of Minersville and beneath a large travertine mound at Hatton Hot Springs (-106 mV) near the town of Fillmore. Hydrologic and gravity data suggest the presence of another concealed geothermal system near C ear Lake in the southern Sevier Desert where an SP anomaly is present near a covered basin-and-range fault having large vertical displacement.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90993©1993 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, September 12-15, 1993.