Rates of thermal water discharge from the hot water geothermal system beneath the Steamboat Hills in Western Nevada, USA

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Following up on limited efforts over the past ∼30 years, we report here results of thermal-water discharge computations from 24 separate sampling events in Steamboat Creek south of Reno NV over the period 2008–2016. The most likely source of thermal water in Steamboat Creek is subsurface outflow from the adjacent geothermal system beneath the Steamboat Hills, a complex of Quaternary rhyolite and basaltic andesite located some 10km south of Reno, NV. A chloride-flux technique was used to determine thermal-water flow based on measurements of increases in flux of chloride in stream water between an upstream and a downstream stream-gaging site separated by approximately 6km and located east and northeast of the hot-water geothermal system beneath the Steamboat Hills.