THE ROLE OF REMOTE SENSING IN GEOTHERMAL

EXPLORATION

FREEK VAN DER MEER, CHRISTOPH HECKER, FRANK VAN RUITENBEEK,

HARALD VAN DER WERFF

MO4.11: Hyperspectral Sensing in Support of Resource Exploration

Monday, July 14, 15:40 - 17:20, Location: room 207
Session Chairs: Carlos de Souza Filho and Benoit Rivard

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OVERVIEW OF THE TALK

 Background on geothermal
 geothermal systems
 Where do they occur?
 How are they used?
 Some traditional/standard exploration techniques
 Remote sensing; from hydro to geothermal – lessons learned
 Future prospects

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Definitions:
1.Geothermal system:
Rainwater is heated by the earth
All parts of the hydrological
system involved (recharge,
subsurface, outflow)
2.Geothermal reservoir:
Hot and permeable subsurface
part of the system.
3.Geothermal field:
An area with geothermal
activity on the Earth Surface
Use of renewable heat generated by the earth itself

How energy is made from heat and steam

GEOLOGY AND GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
MID OCEANIC RIDGE (ICELAND), CONTINENTAL RIFT (EAST AFRICA)

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GEOLOGY AND GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
SUBDUCTION ZONE CONVERGENT MARGIN: SE ASIA, S. AMERICA

Source: http://www.columbia.edu/~vjd1/subd_zone_basic.htm5
HIGH VS. LOW ENTHALPY

To modify choose 'Insert' then 'Header and footer'

Source: WWF ring of fire
NK YOU

Source: PGE
Source: PGE
GEOTHERMAL PROJECT RISK VERSUS COST

Can better exploration

reduce risk and decrease
cost here

Source: ESMAP geothermal handbook, worldbank 9

TRADITIONAL EXPLORATION METHODS
GEOCHEMISTRY, GEOPHYSICS, ENGINEERING

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 The resulting resistivity is
also related to the
presence of clay minerals,
and can be reduced
considerably when the
clay minerals are broadly
distributed.

Source: Anderson et al., WGC2000

From Pellerin et al., 1996

Source: Flovenz et al., WGC2005
 Regional exploration: MT examples

Takigami Geothermal Area, Minamikayabe Geothermal field,

Japan Japan

From Ushijima et al., WGC 2005 From Spichak 2003

“the low resistivity zone in the Highly conductive areas with apparent
northeastern part is intensive and resistivity values not exceeding 6 Ohm⋅m
shallower than that in the southwestern
par, in good agreement with the
geological feature”
Identify geothermal fields at regional scale
using earthquakes:

Passive seismic tomography

The Carson
Sink low P velocity

CS
Drilling Success Rate – reducing risk and cost of a
geothermal exploration campaign

Source: TNO. 18/07/2014

REMOTE SENSING OF GEOTHERMAL SITES
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE STUDY OF HYDROTHERMAL SYSTEMS

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PANORAMA VMS DISTRICT, AUSTRALIA

Fossil submarine hydrothermal system

Cu-Zn mineralization
Archean: 3.2 Ga
PANORAMA VMS DISTRICT, AUSTRALIA

 Mineral mapping with airborne hyperspectral imagery

 Integration with geochemical and stable isotopic data
 Reconstruction of fluid pathways
 Chemical composition of white micas
Case study Cu-Zn deposits Pilbara
Integrated interpretation of the results

Van Ruitenbeek et al. RSE

MOUNT BERECHA AREA, MID-ETHIOPIAN RIFT VALLEY

Active geothermal/ hydrothermal

system
Au mineralization?
Remote sensing can
ASTER nighttime temperature image
find energy sources! Steaming ground
Detecting areas of
anomalous (red in
picture) surface
temperature from
satellite images to aid Lake Koka
in prospecting for
geothermal energy in
Ethiopia.

The areas with the

high surface
temperature are
in areas of volcanoes
and in lakes.

Lake Ziway

cold hot
 HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION

(a) Sample of clay mineral collected; (b) A location

showing demarcation between altered area and alluvial
lithological unit (unaltered area); (c) Rhyolite rock type Typical spectra of kaolinite (blue) and opaline silica
becoming altered; (d) Collection of sample in the field (green)
LIDAR DEM
EAGLE-HAWK AIRBORNE HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGERY

MSc research of Grace Oluwadebi Ayomiposi

MOUNT BERECHA AREA, MID-ETHIOPIAN RIFT VALLEY

 Mineral mapping with airborne hyperspectral imagery

 Identification of hydrothermally altered zones
 Upper levels of active geothermal systems exposed

Steaming ground
ANDEAN CORDILLERA

Active geothermal system

ANDEAN CORDILLERA – LA PACANA

 Geothermal exploration
 Temperature anomaly mapping
 Surface mineralogy mapping
 ASTER satellite imagery
INTERPRETED GEOLOGY – DEM AND ASTER
INTERPRETED MINERALOGY AND VEGETATION - ASTER
TEMPERATURE ANOMALY MAP - ASTER
VALIDATION???
BRADY SYSTEM: MONITORING WITH INSAR

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33
REMOTE SENSING; FROM HYDRO TO GEOTHERMAL
– LESSONS LEARNED FUTURE PROSPECTS

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KEY ASSET OF REMOTE SENSING..
CONTRIBUTION OF REMOTE SENSING
TO GEOTHERMAL EXPLORATION

 Surface mineral alteration mapping -> temperature/type of (a) system

 Surface temperature maps
 Thermal heat flux
 Surface deformation
 (perhaps) gas vents and gas composition
 (can also provide input to land use/cover change etc as input to EIA/SEA)

Pros: it is geospatial, multi-product

Cons: no direct link to the subsurface
ISI PAPERS GEOTHERMAL REMOTE SENSING
(SELECTION)

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CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS

Remote sensing for geothermal exploration adds a surface component on:

 Mineralogy, temperature, heat flux, deformation
 Its adds a spatial (and temporal) dimension to the ‘traditional’
subsurface exploration of geothermal systems
 Most published remote sensing papers on geothermal systems do not
utilize the time domain
SOME key future issues
 How reproducible are remote sensing products?
 Can long term monitoring of geothermal systems be achieved?
 Link this to system (over) exploitation or climate drivers
 Do surface manifestations link to subsurface features?
 How to bridge the divide between academia and industry?

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

 Michael Berger ESA

 Mike Abrams JPL
 Tom Cudahy CSIRO
 ITC geological remote sensing group
 ITC MSc graduates: Abweny, Bedini, Guatame Garcia, Yaseen
 ITC PhD graduates: Van Ruitenbeek, Hecker
 www.geocap.nl

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THE ROLE OF REMOTE SENSING IN GEOTHERMAL
EXPLORATION

FREEK VAN DER MEER, CHRISTOPH HECKER, FRANK VAN RUITENBEEK,

HARALD VAN DER WERFF

MO4.11: Hyperspectral Sensing in Support of Resource Exploration

Monday, July 14, 15:40 - 17:20, Location: room 207
Session Chairs: Carlos de Souza Filho and Benoit Rivard

40