Preliminary Hot Dry Rock geothermal evaluation of Long Valley Caldera, California

Abstract

Long Valley Caldera, formed during the catastrophic eruption of the Bishop Tuff 0.7 Myr ago, straddles the border between the Sierra Nevada and the Basin and Range tectonic provinces in eastern California. The caldera contains rhyolitic to basaltic flows, tuffs, and domes from 3.2 Myr to 450 yr old. Sierra Nevada frontal faults intersect the northwest and southeast parts of the caldera. The dominant feature within the caldera is a resurgent dome in the west-central section, which formed between about 0.7 and 0.5 Myr b.p. Teleseismic data indicate a low P-wave velocity zone below the western part of the caldera, indicating a magma chamber between 7 and 25 km depth. This conclusion is supported by gravity data. Heat flow just west of the caldera is 3.75 HFU. Just east of the caldera, measured heat flow is about 2 HFU. However, a deep well on the eastern edge of the resurgent dome has a gradient of 38/sup 0/C/km from 0.66 to 1.2 km suggesting that the magma chamber, which produced Long Valley, is largely crystallized below the resurgent dome. The high heat flow beneath the western caldera may be a manifestation of shallow silicic magma associated with the recent Inyo Craters. more » These data indicate a smaller magma source may lie below the western caldera. The resurgent dome and the area just west of the caldera are cited for additional Hot Dry Rock prospection. The higher temperature gradient and lack of caldera fill beyond the west margin of the caldera combine to make this area promising for future HDR evaluation. « less