Abstract
The study area is one of the important geothermal provinces in south Algeria. It is characterized by a hot arid climate with intense dryness and very high evaporation rates. The Albian geothermal system is exploited by the wells mainly for domestic and agricultural purposes. The sandstone Continental Intercalary (CI) formation constitutes the reservoir for the Albian aquifer, covering an area of 600,000 km2. This reservoir is covered by calcareous formations which yield the chemical characteristics of highly mineralized Na-Cl type representing the deep thermal waters and Ca-SO4 type determined the presence of evaporate lithology . For a better understanding of geothermal reservoir characteristic, a multidisciplinary approach was adopted, including hydrogeochemistry and geothermometry. More than fifty samples collected from wells recently in 2017 with a temperature average between 38 and 60° C and conductivities range from 2010 to 3460 μS/cm. Geochemical analysis of those thermal waters exhibits a certain degree of salinity with sodium-chloride type waters domination. The maximal geothermal reservoir temperature estimated using geothermometry is about 120°C.
Highlights
Sahara is situated in North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea, it is the biggest and one of the driest deserted of the planet (Fig. 1)
The current paper focuses on the investigation of chemical properties of the principal geothermal waters located Northern Sahara provinces
Allowing to the Piper diagram, the evaporates layers appear to influence the composition of the circulating shallow waters
Summary
Sahara is situated in North Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea, it is the biggest and one of the driest deserted of the planet (Fig. 1). [1, 2, 3, 4].The natural limits of this vast region of about 900 000 km 2 are the following ones: - In North, the edge of the high plateaus of the Atlas which extends from Morocco to the gulf Gabès gulf (Tunisia). It’s up to the big desert located in the north hemisphere, in recent years; several studies address the groundwater and geothermal potential along the south of Algeria]. This line corresponds to a geological undulation which brutally stops. All results will aid local authorities and private sector investment in various activities (residential, agricultural and tourism) to develop renewable geothermal energy for heat and electricity generation
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