Abstract

Significant potential for the existence of high temperature geothermal resources appears to exist in the volcanic islands of the Lesser Antilles. Islands in the archipelago with active volcanism are St. Vincent, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Montserrat. Islands whose volcanoes are dormant but on which fumaroles, hot springs and/or hot groundwaters exist include Grenada, St. Lucia, Dominica, Nevis, St. Kitts, Statia and Saba.

Since 1982, reconnaissance exploration for geothermal resources has been undertaken on the latter islands. Work conducted includes reviews of geologic, geochemical and geophysical literature, geostructural airphoto analyses, field geologic studies, petrographic studies of representative rock types, geochemical analyses of thermal and non-thermal waters and the collection of non-resource related information.

For each island, collected data has been analyzed, conclusions are drawn concerning the potential for geothermal resource discovery, economic pro-formas related to resource exploitation are generated and recommendations, with cost estimates, are made for follow-on work Positive indicia have been identified on all of the listed islands and plans for additional exploration are at various stages of implementation on several islands.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90937©1998 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah