Geology of the late Pliocene – Pleistocene Acoculco caldera complex, eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (México)

Avellán, Denis Ramón; Macías, José Luis; Layer, Paul W.; Cisneros, Guillermo; Sánchez-Núñez, Juan Manuel; Gómez‐Vasconcelos, Martha Gabriela; Pola, Antonio; Sosa-Ceballos, Giovanni; García-Tenorio, F.; Agustín, Gabriela Reyes; Osorio-Ocampo, Susana; García-Sánchez, Laura; Mendiola, Irma Fabiola; Martı́, Joan; López‐Loera, Héctor; Benowitz, Jeff

doi:10.1080/17445647.2018.1531075

Cited by 37 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…As such, this ground stability scenario can be used among reference datasets for future assessment of possible volume changes in the reservoir-if and when exploitation of geothermal resources might be approved and take place at this site. , geology and hydrothermal mapping [53,89], geothermal permit [27], exploration wells [50,88]. lineaments [50], geology and hydrothermal mapping [53,89], geothermal permit [27], exploration wells [50,88].…”

Section: Acoculcomentioning

confidence: 99%

Wide-Area InSAR Survey of Surface Deformation in Urban Areas and Geothermal Fields in the Eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Mexico

et al. 2019

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This paper provides the first wide-area Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) survey of the whole eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (42,200 km2). The aims are to identify ground deformation hotspots within major urbanized areas and rural valleys, establish baselines in geothermal exploration sites, and analyze deformation at geothermal exploitation sites and its relationship with energy production. The whole 2003–2010 ENVISAT C-band SAR archive available over the region was processed with the Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) InSAR method to retrieve over 840,000 coherent targets and estimate their ground displacement rates and time series. Land subsidence hotspots due to aquifer drawdown are found within the city of Puebla (up to −53 mm/year vertical rates, groundwater pumping for industrial use), Tlaxcala and Apizaco (−17 mm/year, industrial and public), the valley of Tecamachalco (−22 mm/year, agricultural), Tulancingo (−55 mm/year, public, industrial and agricultural), and in the eastern Mexico City metropolitan area (−44 mm/year, agricultural). The baseline for the Acoculco caldera complex shows widespread ground stability. Conversely, localized subsidence patterns of −5 to −10 mm/year exist around Las Derrumbadas and Cerro Pinto in the Serdán-Oriental basin, due to intense groundwater pumping for agriculture. A well-defined land subsidence area with −11 mm/year maximum rates is found at Los Humeros volcanic complex within Los Potreros collapse, correlating well with energy production infrastructure location and historical steam production rates. Field surveys carried out in Acoculco and Los Humeros in 2018 provide supporting evidence for the identification of hydrothermal manifestations, and understanding of the landscape and surface deformation patterns within the geothermal fields.

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Section: Acoculcomentioning

confidence: 99%

Wide-Area InSAR Survey of Surface Deformation in Urban Areas and Geothermal Fields in the Eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Mexico

et al. 2019

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“…The Acoculco caldera complex has an 18 km x 16 km semi-circular shape (Avellán et al, 2018) and predominantly comprises Pliocene to Pleistocene basaltic to rhyolitic lavas, domes, cinder cones and ignimbrites. The caldera complex sits on an intersecting NE-SW and NW-SE fault system creating an orthogonal arrangement of grabens, half-grabens and horsts (García-Palomo et al, 2002.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thereby the regional tectonic regime strongly affected the local tectonic behavior and structural deformation of the caldera (Sosa-Ceballos et al, 2018). The Acoculco caldera is located on the NE-SW Rosario-Acoculco horst and was built on top of Cretaceous limestones, the Zacatlán basaltic plateau (so far undated) as well as Miocene and Pliocene lavas and domes related to the regional volcanism of the TMVB (Avellán et al, 2018(Avellán et al, , 2020. Thereby the pre-caldera lavas and scoria cones exposed north and northeast of the Acoculco caldera complex were related to the Apan-Tezontepec Volcanic Field (Miocene and Pliocene), whereas Miocene andesitic and dacitic lavas are exposed west of the Acoculco caldera complex.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thereby the pre-caldera lavas and scoria cones exposed north and northeast of the Acoculco caldera complex were related to the Apan-Tezontepec Volcanic Field (Miocene and Pliocene), whereas Miocene andesitic and dacitic lavas are exposed west of the Acoculco caldera complex. Magmatic activity of the Acoculco caldera can be divided into five different eruptive phases, including recent deposits and hydrothermal altered areas inside the caldera (Avellán et al, 2018). It began with the emplacement of the Acoculco ignimbrite (~2.7 Ma; 40 Ar/ 39 Ar), followed by several early-(~2.6 -2.1 Ma) and late-post caldera (~2.0 -< 0.016 Ma) volcanic events producing basaltic to trachyandesitic and rhyolitic lava flows restricted within the caldera and rhyolitic lava domes, scoria cones and two ignimbrites that predominantly migrated to the caldera rim and periphery, respectively.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Petrophysical and mechanical rock property database of the Los Humeros and Acoculco geothermal fields (Mexico)

Weydt¹,

Ramírez-Guzmán²,

Pola³

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Petrophysical and mechanical rock properties are key parameters for the characterization of the deep subsurface in different disciplines such as geothermal heat extraction, petroleum reservoir engineering or mining. They are commonly used for the interpretation of geophysical data and the parameterization of numerical models and thus are the basis for economic reservoir assessment. However, detailed information regarding petrophysical and mechanical rock properties for each relevant target horizon are often scarce, inconsistent or distributed over multiple publications. Therefore, subsurface models are often populated with generalized or assumed values resulting in high uncertainties. Furthermore, diagenetic, metamorphic and hydrothermal processes significantly affect the physiochemical and mechanical properties often leading to a high geological variability. A sound understanding of the controlling factors is needed to identify statistical and causal relationships between the properties as a basis for a profound reservoir assessment and modeling. Within the scope of the GEMex project (EU-H2020, GA Nr. 727550), which aims to develop new transferable exploration and exploitation approaches for enhanced and super-hot unconventional geothermal systems, a new workflow was applied to overcome the gap of knowledge of the reservoir properties. Two caldera complexes located in the northeastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt – the Acoculco and Los Humeros caldera – were selected as demonstration sites. The workflow starts with outcrop analogue and reservoir core sample studies in order to define and characterize the properties of all key units from the basement to the cap rock as well as their mineralogy and geochemistry. This allows the identification of geological heterogeneities on different scales (outcrop analysis, representative rock samples, thin sections and chemical analysis) enabling a profound reservoir property prediction. More than 300 rock samples were taken from representative outcrops inside of the Los Humeros and Acoculco calderas, the surrounding areas and from exhumed fossil systems in Las Minas and Zacatlán. Additionally, 66 core samples from 16 wells of the Los Humeros geothermal field and 8 core samples from well EAC1 of the Acoculco geothermal field were collected. Samples were analyzed for particle and bulk density, porosity, permeability, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, heat capacity, as well as ultra-sonic wave velocities, magnetic susceptibility and electric resistivity. Afterwards, destructive rock mechanical tests (point load tests, uniaxial and triaxial tests) were conducted to determine tensile strength, uniaxial compressive strength, Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, bulk modulus, shear modulus, fracture toughness, cohesion and friction angle. In addition, XRD and XRF analyses were performed on 137 samples to provide information about the mineral assemblage, bulk geochemistry and the intensity of hydrothermal alteration. An extensive rock property database was created (Weydt et al. 2020, http://dx.doi.org/10.25534/tudatalib-201.2), comprising 34 parameters determined on more than 2,160 plugs. More than 31,000 data entries were compiled covering volcanic, sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks from different ages (Jurassic to Holocene), thus facilitating a wide field of applications regarding resource assessment, modeling and statistical analyses.

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“…García‐Palomo et al () have carried out research work on the structural and fault‐related aspects of The Apan–Acoculco area, located in the eastern portion of the Mexico basin and the Trans‐Mexican Volcanic Belt. Avellán et al () have presented a new geologic map (1:80,000 scale) of the ACC, encompassing an area of 856 km 2 . The caldera lies upon limestones of Cretaceous age and volcanic rocks of Miocene to Pliocene (13–3 Ma), consisting of 31 lithostatrigraphic units that include various landforms (cinder cones, lava domes, etc.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mineralogical and geochemical changes due to hydrothermal alteration of the volcanic rocks at Acoculco geothermal system, Mexico

et al. 2020

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Most of the volcanic rocks in the Acoculco geothermal system (AGS), near to the surface manifestations, are intensively altered. Thirty‐four surface volcanic rocks and five rocks from outcrop sections are considered in this work. Silica polymorphs (quartz, cristobalite and tridymite) are the dominant hydrothermal minerals in almost all the rock samples. The following other minerals are present in minor concentrations: alkali‐feldspars (sanidine potassic, anorthoclase and microcline), plagioclase feldspars (albite and anorthite), clay minerals (illite, kaolinite and montmorillonite), anhydrite, buddingtonite, titanoaugite, magnetite and anatase. This type of mineral assemblage of the rocks indicates an intensive silicic and argillic alteration. Comparison of the elemental concentrations of the surface acid rocks of the AGS with that of the precursor rock has indicated alteration‐induced changes in (a) chemical mobility in the concentrations of major element oxides, with an increase in the concentrations of SiO2, and TiO2, loss in those of Al2O3, Fe2O3, MnO, MgO, CaO, Na2O and K2O, and no statistically significant changes in those of P2O5, (b) no significant changes in the concentrations of LREE and MREE (except Dy and Ho), however, less but significant loss in the concentrations of Dy and Ho, and HREE, and (c) there is an enrichment in the concentrations of Nd, Sr, Sc, V, Nb, Ag, Sn, Pb, Tl, Ta, U and Th; and depletion in Be, Co, Zn, Ga, Ge, Rb, Y, Zr, Mo, Cs, Ba and Hf compared to those of the precursor rock. This type of distribution of the elements may indicate (a) an intense silicic alteration; and (b) REEs might have been leached from the original rocks because of hydrothermal alteration processes, but only LREEs, and MREEs (except Dy and Ho) can be redistributed and accommodated in the hydrothermal minerals, providing them with somewhat inert (immobile) behaviour. The mass change calculations have indicated that MnO and Sr have experienced the greatest and smallest mass changes, respectively. The identification of outliers in chemical data has revealed the presence of two distinctive groups of rocks. Ten out of the total 27 acid volcanic rocks with several elements as outlier data are negligibly to moderately altered (Group‐1), and the remaining 17 acid rocks without outlier data are intensively altered rocks (Group‐2).

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Geology of the late Pliocene – Pleistocene Acoculco caldera complex, eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (México)

Cited by 37 publications

References 10 publications

Wide-Area InSAR Survey of Surface Deformation in Urban Areas and Geothermal Fields in the Eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Mexico

Wide-Area InSAR Survey of Surface Deformation in Urban Areas and Geothermal Fields in the Eastern Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Mexico

Petrophysical and mechanical rock property database of the Los Humeros and Acoculco geothermal fields (Mexico)

Mineralogical and geochemical changes due to hydrothermal alteration of the volcanic rocks at Acoculco geothermal system, Mexico

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