Three-dimensional magnetotelluric and gravimetric imaging of Mount Lawu geothermal prospect area, Indonesia

Abstract

Mount Lawu is a stratovolcano located on the border of Central Java and East Java Provinces in Indonesia. At least eleven manifestations indicate its geothermal potential in the form of hot water and fumaroles. This study aims to describe a geothermal system based on an integrated analysis of magnetotelluric (MT) and satellite gravity data. Some additional geochemical and petrological data analyses were also used to explain the existing hydrothermal system in this area. It is inferred from the gravity derivative analysis that fault structures exist in a location with high permeability, which acts as a controlling structure for geothermal manifestations. The 3-D resistivity inversion was carried out using MT full-impedance tensor data, while the 3-D density model was reconstructed based on the residual anomaly computed from the topography-free gravity disturbance. The 3-D resistivity model, from magnetotelluric inversion, shows a clay cap distribution, corresponds to a low resistivity anomaly, centered at the southern part of the mountain peak with a thickness of about 1 kilometer, which narrows to the western region where the hot spring shows an outflow manifestation. The gravity inversion shows several low-density bodies in the same location as the low-resistivity anomaly attributed to a clay cap. Coincident resistivity and density anomalies constrain the horizontal location of the geothermal reservoir. Despite the incapability of the model to resolve the body of the geothermal heat source, it can be inferred from the inversion results that the heat possibly emanates through the thermal conduction passage below the reservoir zone from the source located deeper down than the reconstructed models.