6 Geothermal Fluids Pressure, greatly exceeding that of the water column (hydrostatic pressure). Such systems can also contain substantial amounts of methane. 1.2 GENESIS OF GEOTHERMAL FLUIDS Origin of water and solutes ‘The water constituting the geothermal fluid can be derived from a number of sources. It may represent surface (meteoric) water which has gained depths of several kilometres through fractures and permeable horizons, or it can be water which was buried along with the host sediments (formation ot connate waters).. Other sources of water in geothermal systems have been suggested; these include waters evolved in metamorphism (metamorphic waters) and from magmas (juvenile waters), but the importance of these sources of water is uncertain. ‘Magmas were initially thought to be the source of the heat, water and solutes of geothermal systems. However, this neat mode! was radically changed in the early 1960°s when it was demonstrated that the fluids were of dominantly meteoric origin, and solutes could be derived from rock-water reactions. Work on the isotopic signature of the fluids by Craig (1963) showed that they had the same deuterium signature as that of local meteoric water and could not be magmatic. In a series of now classic studies in aqueous geochemistry, Ellis and Mahon (1964, 1967) and Mahon (1967) demonstrated that all the solutes in geothermal fluids could be derived from reactions between the meteoric groundwater and the host lithologies. Later experiments with seawater and basalt (eg. Bischoff et al., 1981) produced solutions of, similar chemistry to seawater-influenced geothermal systems such as those in Iceland. Rock-water reaction is therefore thought to be the major source for many of the solutes, although they may also be contributed by mixing with formation waters, seawater or magmatic brine. While there is no doubt that the geothermal fluids are of a predominantly meteoric origin, there is sufficient latitude in the isotope data to permit 5-10% of the fluid to be from an alternative source, possibly a magmatic brine. Mixing with even a small amount of magmatic brine would significantly affect the chemistry of the final geothermal fluid, and isotope determinations cannot discount a magmatic contribution subsequently diluted by meteoric waters. However, mass balance considerations using typical values for: