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Major active faults determine the location of the Tongonan geothermal field: Evidence provided by rock alteration and stable isotope geochemistry
Author(s) -
Scott Graeme L.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
island arc
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.554
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1440-1738
pISSN - 1038-4871
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1738.2004.00432.x
Subject(s) - geology , meteoric water , geochemistry , geothermal gradient , groundwater , aquifer , isotopes of oxygen , groundwater recharge , shear zone , metasomatism , mantle (geology) , geophysics , paleontology , geotechnical engineering , tectonics
The influence of major active faults on rock alteration and stable isotope geochemistry is described for the Tongonan geothermal field, Leyte, the Philippines. In the Pliocene, acid alteration with characteristic iron enrichment (3 g/100 g) and calcium depletion (2 g/100 g) occurred along a Riedel shear fault in the Malitbog sector, and initial minor acid alteration also occurred along a similar shear in the Mahiao sector. Later, sodium metasomatism (5 g/100 g) coincided with the highest aquifer chloride (10 000 mg/kg) as a result of dissociation of saline magmatic fluids discharging through the reservoir rocks in the Upper Mahiao. The incursion of magmatic fluids (possibly δD 35‰, δ 18 O +7‰) set up a vigorous convection cell of meteoric water, which focused around low‐angle (L) shears centered in the Sambaloran sector. Meteoric water (δD −35 to −40‰, δ 18 O −6 ± 1‰) depleted the reservoir in silica (6 g/100 g) and potassium (1–2 g/100 g). It also completely exchanged oxygen isotopes rapidly (within months) at high temperatures (300–400°C), and now does so continuously with fractured isotopically fresh or incompletely altered rock at small scales (centimeters or less) exposed by a 2 cm/year creep around the L shears to form a new component called geothermal water. Geothermal water mixes with meteoric water at lower temperatures (<300°C) to create the characteristic shift in δ 18 O of 6‰ at near constant δD (−35 ± 5‰). The 10‰ variation in δD is due to groundwater recharge derived from rain falling on steep terrain (5‰) and to enrichment of deuterium in boiling saline solutions (5‰); it is not due to two‐component mixing of meteoric with magmatic water. The low (∼1) isotopic water/rock (W/R) ratios calculated from oxygen isotopes in previously published reports are meaningless, because the water contains four components (predominantly geothermal and meteoric water; <10% magmatic and rock water). W/R ratios of up to 1500 calculated from spring and rock chemistry are more realistic and, with a flow rate of approximately 50 L/s through a 30 km 3 reservoir, can account for the estimated 3 My age of the system.