Diffuse Helium and Hydrogen Degassing to Reveal Hidden Geothermal Resources in Oceanic Volcanic Islands: The Canarian Archipelago Case Study

We report herein the results of soil gas geochemistry studies, focused mainly on nonreactive and/or highly mobile gases such as He and H 2 , in five mining licenses at Tenerife and Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, during 2011–2014. The primary objective was to sort the possible geothermal potent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Surveys in geophysics 2015-05, Vol.36 (3), p.351-369
Main Authors: Rodríguez, Fátima, Pérez, Nemesio M., Padrón, Eleazar, Melián, Gladys, Hernández, Pedro A., Asensio-Ramos, María, Dionis, Samara, López, Gabriel, Marrero, Rayco, Padilla, Germán D., Barrancos, José, Hidalgo, Raúl
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archipelagoes
Astronomy
Data mining
Degassing
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Enthalpy
Geochemistry
Geophysics/Geodesy
Geothermal
Geothermal energy
Geothermal power
Geothermal resources
Helium
Hydrogen
Islands
Licenses
Mining
Observations and Techniques
Soil (material)
Soil gases
Spatial distribution
Volcanic islands
Volcanoes
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Summary:We report herein the results of soil gas geochemistry studies, focused mainly on nonreactive and/or highly mobile gases such as He and H 2 , in five mining licenses at Tenerife and Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, during 2011–2014. The primary objective was to sort the possible geothermal potential of these five mining licenses, thus reducing the uncertainty inherent to the selection of the areas with highest geothermal potential for future exploration works. By combining the overall information obtained by the statistical–graphical analysis of the soil He and H 2 data, the spatial distribution of soil gas concentrations and the analysis of selected chemical ratios of the soil gas to evaluate the influence of deep-seating degassing, two of the five mining licenses ( Garehagua and Abeque , both located in Tenerife Island) seemed to show the highest geothermal potential. These results will be useful for future implementation and development of geothermal energy in the Canaries, the only Spanish territory with potential high-enthalpy geothermal resources, thus the most promising area for high-enthalpy geothermal installations.
ISSN:0169-3298
1573-0956
DOI:10.1007/s10712-015-9320-8