Reservoir architecture model and heat transfer modes in the El Tatio-La Torta geothermal system, Central Andes of northern Chile

Letelier, Juvenal A.; O’Sullivan, John; Reich, Martín; Veloso, Eugenio E.; Sánchez-Alfaro, Pablo; Aravena, Diego; Muñoz, Mauricio; Morata, Diego

doi:10.1016/j.geothermics.2020.101940

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Heat and energy transported by convection regulate the climate and support life on Earth. Examples of planetary-scale convective processes include the circulation within the atmosphere, oceans (Vallis 2017;Forget & Ferreira 2019), geothermal fluxes across the lithosphere (Grant & Bixley 2011;Letelier et al 2021) and the mantle dynamics (Korenaga 2020;Tackley 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energetics and mixing of thermally driven flows in Hele-Shaw cells

Ulloa

Letelier

2021

J. Fluid Mech.

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Thermally driven flows in fractures play a key role in enhancing the heat transfer and fluid mixing across the Earth's lithosphere. Yet the energy pathways in such confined environments have not been characterised. Building on Letelier et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 864, 2019, pp. 746–767), we introduce novel expressions for energy transfer rates – energetics – of geometrically constrained Rayleigh–Bénard convection in Hele-Shaw cells (HS-RBC) based on two different conceptual frameworks. First, we derived the energetics following the well-established framework introduced by Winters et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 289, 1995, pp. 115–128), in which the gravitational potential energy, $E_{\textit {p}}$ , is decomposed into its available, $E_{\textit {ap}}$ , and background, $E_{\textit {bp}}$ , components. Secondly, we derived the energetics considering a new decomposition for $E_{\textit {p}}$ , named dynamic, $E_{\textit {dp}}$ , and reference, $E_{\textit {rp}}$ , potential energies; $E_{\textit {dp}}$ is defined as the departure of the system's potential energy from the reference state $E_{\textit {rp}}$ , determined by the ‘energy’ of the scalar fluctuations. For HS-RBC, both frameworks lead to the same energy transfer rates at a steady state, satisfying the relationship $\langle E_{\textit {ap}} \rangle _{\tau } = \langle E_{\textit {dp}} \rangle _{\tau } + 1/6$ . Consistent with the work by Hughes et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 729, 2013) on three-dimensional Rayleigh–Bénard convection, we report analytical expressions for the energetics and efficiencies of HS-RBC in terms of the Rayleigh number and the global Nusselt number. Additionally, we performed numerical experiments to illustrate the application of the energetics for the analysis of HS-RBC. Finally, we discuss the impact of the thermal forcing and the geometrical control exerted by Hele-Shaw cells on the development of boundary layers, protoplumes and the self-organisation of large-scale flows.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energetics and mixing of thermally driven flows in Hele-Shaw cells

Ulloa

Letelier

2021

J. Fluid Mech.

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“…1C ) is located over 4,200 meters above sea level, where extreme atmospheric conditions are due to low precipitation and high evaporation rates, high daily temperature oscillations ( 47 ), and high rates of ultraviolet radiation ( 48 ). The geothermal area encloses about 200 thermal features including geysers, fumaroles, hot springs, and mud volcanoes ( 49 , 50 ) and extensive sinter deposits. The temperature of the thermal fluids can reach 86°C at the surface, which is the boiling point at this altitude, while the pH ranges from 5.5 to 8.2.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two local reservoirs, one deeper and hotter (260–270°C) and one shallower and cooler (160–170°C), accumulate hot fluids and feed thermal features. In addition, a larger-scale model has been proposed ( 50 ), which integrates El Tatio into a regional geothermal system that also comprises La Torta dome 10 km southeast of El Tatio. In this model, a third hotter reservoir is proposed below La Torta dome, from which fluids flow sub-horizontally across NW-striking faults and rise at the intersection between the N- and NW-striking faults found in El Tatio ( Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of hydrogeochemistry on the microbial ecology of terrestrial hot springs

Barbosa,

Tamayo-Leiva,

Alcorta

et al. 2023

Microbiol Spectr

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Temperature, pH, and hydrochemistry of terrestrial hot springs play a critical role in shaping thermal microbial communities. However, the interactions of biotic and abiotic factors at this terrestrial-aquatic interface are still not well understood on a global scale, and the question of how underground events influence microbial communities remains open. To answer this, 11 new samples obtained from the El Tatio geothermal field were analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing (V4 region), along with 191 samples from previous publications obtained from the Taupo Volcanic Zone, the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field, and the Eastern Tibetan Plateau, with their temperature, pH, and major ion concentration. Microbial alpha diversity was lower in acid-sulfate waters, and no significant correlations were found with temperature. However, moderate correlations were observed between chemical parameters such as pH (mostly constrained to temperatures below 70°C), SO 4 2− and abundances of members of the phyla Armatimonadota, Deinococcota, Chloroflexota, Campilobacterota, and Thermoplasmatota. pH and SO 4 2− gradients were explained by phase separation of sulfur-rich hydrothermal fluids and oxidation of reduced sulfur in the steam phase, which were identified as key processes shaping these communities. Ordination and permutational analysis of variance showed that temperature, pH, and major element hydrochemistry explain only 24% of the microbial community structure. Therefore, most of the variance remained unexplained, suggesting that other environmental or biotic factors are also involved and highlighting the environmental complexity of the ecosystem and its great potential to test niche theory ecological associated questions. IMPORTANCE This is the first approach to investigate whether geothermal processes could have an influence on the ecology of thermal microbial communities on a global scale. In addition to temperature and pH, microbial communities are structured by sulfate concentrations, which depends on the tectono-magmatic settings (such as the depth of magmatic chambers) and the local settings (such as the availability of a confining layer separating NaCl waters from steam after phase separation) and the possibility of mixing with more diluted fluids. Comparison of microbial communities from different geothermal areas by homogeneous sequence processing showed that no significant geographic distance decay was detected on the microbial communities according to Bray-Curtis, Jaccard, unweighted, and weighted Unifrac similarity/dissimilarity indices. Instead, an ancient potential divergence in the same taxonomic groups is suggested between globally distant thermal zones.

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“…Low resistivity zones have been located beneath the APVC and notably beneath El Tatio and the San Pedro-Paniri-Toconce trend (Letelier et al, 2021;Montecinos-Cuadros, et al, 2021). These lowresistivity zones occur at depths of <60 m and 200-400 m hinting at possible reservoirs for groups II and III waters.…”

Section: Potential Sources Of Invariant Rechargementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Hydrogeochemical processes operating within the catchment may be summarized using TDS vs. location within the catchment, FIGURE 8 (A) distribution of low pmC, HCO 3 :Cl, and temperature representing groups I-III. Also shown are the extent of the San Pedro-Linzor low resistivity zone (Mancini et al, 2019), and the El Tatio hydrothermal field (Giggenbach, 1978) and low resistivity zone (Letelier et al, 2021), the Cerro Pabellon geothermal field (Godoy et al, 2022), and the Sol de Manana hydrothermal field (Morata et al, 2020). (B) three component mixing diagram for groups I-III.…”

Section: Baseflow Characteristics and Interaction With Aquifersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The provenance and persistence of the perennial Río Loa in the Atacama Desert: links between crustal processes and surface hydrology

Houston

2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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The Río Loa is a perennial river that crosses the Atacama Desert. A basin-wide survey enables for the first time, the hydrologic regime origin, persistence and processes to be identified. Perennial baseflow in the Ríos Loa and Salado largely originates from intra-arc aquifers which are poorly known. However, the data indicate that despite flood flow being largely confined to the summer (DJF) season, sufficient storage exists in these aquifers to maintain year-round stream flow from high-altitude, across the Atacama Desert to the coast. The intra-arc aquifers of the Western Cordillera receive recharge from time-variable precipitation infiltration and time-invariant lithospheric inputs. Lithospheric inputs potentially include slab/mantle dehydration, upper crustal melt devolatilization and/or thermally induced upflow of deeply penetrating meteoric water through buried evaporites or carbonates. Downstream, aquifers in the Pre-Andean basins variably interact with surface water, depending on location, river stage and time of year, but they do not supply significant additional sources of baseflow. Hydrochemical processes include those related to volcanic activity, soil carbonate generation, silicate weathering, CO2 degassing and calcite precipitation. Solutes undergo concentration by evaporation, gypsum dissolution, and are further affected by localized NO3, and SO4 inputs and mixing with saline waters. Stable isotopes reveal subcatchment specific precipitation and evaporation, whilst carbon and tritium isotopes are used to analyze recharge sources and processes in the intra-arc aquifers and downstream mixing.

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Reservoir architecture model and heat transfer modes in the El Tatio-La Torta geothermal system, Central Andes of northern Chile

Cited by 7 publications

References 39 publications

Energetics and mixing of thermally driven flows in Hele-Shaw cells

Energetics and mixing of thermally driven flows in Hele-Shaw cells

Effects of hydrogeochemistry on the microbial ecology of terrestrial hot springs

The provenance and persistence of the perennial Río Loa in the Atacama Desert: links between crustal processes and surface hydrology

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