Procedure for determining geothermal viability

Timothy A. Cary, Rachel Lauer, Kristopher A. Innanen, David Cho

The initial research to determine a procedure for evaluating the viability of a site for geothermal energy installation is outlined. The current routine looks to perform a joint p and s-wave velocity inversion utilizing refraction and surface wave data. There is the potential to include resistivity data to further constrain the inversion as part of the joint inversion scheme, whereby the difference between inverted porosity values calculated from the velocities and the resistivity drive the inversion. Hydrothermal modeling will act to replicate the fluid flow and heat transport around the site, as ground water flow has the most influence on the temperature of near surface rock and soil. Well data and core data will be required for calibrating such models.