Dixie Valley Workshop

June, 2002

Noble Gas Isotope Geochemistry

at the Dixie Valley Geothermal Field

B. Mack Kennedy
Center for Isotope Geochemistry
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Collaborators
Stuart Johnson Cathy Janik
Dick Benoit Fraser Goff
D. L. Shuster Matthijs van Soest
 Dixie Valley Workshop
June, 2002

Primary Goals

(1) Identify Heat and Fluid Sources

(2) Evaluate Noble Gases as Potential Natural Tracers for

Monitoring Injectate

(3) Integrate Chemical and Isotopic Data into Reservoir

Simulation Models
 Noble Gases
Natural Tracers for Geothermal Fluids
 Dixie Valley Workshop
June, 2002

Noble Gases: Sensitive Natural Tracers

For Detecting and Monitoring
Injectate Returns to Geothermal Reservoirs

Proof of Concept
 Natural Injectate Tracers

• Chloride and Water Isotopes - Widely used

• Must assume single indigenous reservoir fluid
• Only applicable in single phase liquid systems
• Inapplicable in systems with high TDS
• Low sensitivity: Injectate concentrations are similar to production fluids
 With 25% steam fraction:
--- [Cl] (injectate) ~ 1.30 [Cl] (production fluid)
--- D(d18O) ~ 1-2 ‰

• Noble Gases
• Predictable and relatively invariant composition and concentration in the
indigenous reservoir fluids.
• High sensitivity: Injectate concentrations are extremely low
 With 25% steam fraction
--- [Noble Gas] (injectate) ~ 0.01-0.001 [Noble Gas] (production fluid)
 Noble gases are ~4-40 times more sensitive.
Noble Gases: Tracers for Natural Recharge and Injectate
Theory

• Phase Separation:

10
 Case I  Isothermal Batch or
Single Stage Separation Continuous Seperation - Rayleigh
o
(220 )

8 250o-100o w/10o steps

(Separation Temp)

 Case II  Non-isothermal
Continuous Steam Separation

F(132Xe)
o
(230 )
6
(Rayleigh Distillation).
o
(240 )
0o Single Stage Batch
4 (0.025) (0.1) (0.5) Ts = 250 oC
• Very low solubility leads to high ASW 20
o (Steam Fraction)

sensitivity for monitoring injectate 40o

return. 2

0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000

• With a steam fraction of only 2.5%: 36 6
1/[ Ar] (10 gm fluid-reservoir/cc)
residual liquid is depleted in 36Ar by a
factor of ~20!

• Ultimate composition is path

dependent.
Tracers for Re-Injected Fluids
at Dixie Valley
 Tracers for Re-Injected Fluids
at Dixie Valley

• Composition of re-injected brine is

consistent with isothermal batch
Noble Gases: Tracers For Re-Injected Brine
separation at ~250 oC with ~20-30%
steam fraction. 6.0

Dixie Valley
• Noble gases in 1998 and 1999 Section 33
1998
Section 7
1998 Isothermal (250 oC)
production fluids are significantly 1999 1999 Phase Separation
(Residual Liq - calculated)

depleted (2-4 times) relative to 25oC 4.0

ASW. Low Pressure

F(132Xe)
Brine
(measured)
Mixing Line
• Composition of Section 7 wells reflect 20 oC
ASW
Natural Recharge (ASW) and Re-Injected Brine

mixing of re-injected brine and 2.0

meteoric water.

• Volume fraction of injectate in

production stream: 0.0
1 10 100
Section 33 ~30-35% 36 -6
1/[ Ar] (10 cc/gm fluid-reservoir)
Section 7 ~50-80%
 Tracers for Re-Injected Fluids
at Dixie Valley

1.00

0.90
Dixie Valley - 1998

0.80

0.70 82A-7
Vinj/Vtotal - Chloride

63-7
73B-7
0.60 74-7
76A-7

0.50

0.40
28-33

0.30 27-33

0.20

0.10

0.00
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00

Vinj/Vtotal - Noble Gases

 Section 7 Wells
1998 to 1999

• [36Ar] declined from 1998 to 1999 in all

but one well (74-7).
4.0

o Dixie Valley Section 7 Wells

10 C
• Relative proportion of co-produced 3.5
Red: 1998
Blue: 1999

injectate increased at constant rate: o

20 C
GW
3.0 65-18
o

F(132Xe)
40 C
D(Vinj/Vtot) ~ 20%/year
74-7

2.5

(Vinj/Vtot) - %
D (%/yr)
• Exception (74-7): [36Ar] increased by 2.0 Well
76A
1998
50.1
1999
61.5 +22.8
74-7 73.0 51.4 -29.6
factor of ~2. 63-7 61.4 62.5 + 1.8
1.5 73-7 air cont. 44.1 n.d.
82A-7 52.7 63.7 +20.9
73B-7 65.5 77.4 +18.2
Air contaminated
 Cold groundwater added to injectate 1.0
0 1 2 3 4
beginning mid-1997 (Well 65-18)
1/[36Ar] (10-6 cc/gm-reservoir fluid)
 Dixie Valley Workshop
June, 2002

Helium Isotopes in
Dixie Valley Wells, Springs and Fumaroles

Heat and Fluid sources

 Helium Isotopes
in Geothermal Systems
 Coupling of Heat and Helium

• ~75% of Earth’s heat budget is from

natural radio-decay of U and Th ---
leads to well defined (4He/3He) and
Q(heat)/3He ratios for mantle and Helium and Heat
crustal fluids (green triangles) In Geothermal Systems
100
B: Beowave Crust
• Using this coherence, the heat source DV: Dixie Valley
W: Waiotapu
NWG: Northwest Geysers
of a geothermal reservoir can be 10 BL: BroadLands

(4He/3He) x 106
WK: Wairakei
evaluated: LV: Long Valley
AP: Alto Peak B
R: Reykjanes
G: Guanacaste Meteoric Water
1
DV
Boiling
 Dixie Valley = 10-15% of heat derived (Vapor Frac. Removed)
Magma 0.1% 1% 10% LV 90%
from mantle - remainder is derived from Degassing
BL
0.1 G
the crustal geothermal gradient Mantle AP NWG W WK
"Magma Aging"
R
 NW Geysers = 100%
0.01
0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000

• Heat loss by conduction, boiling, or 3

(Q/ He) x 10
12
Joules/ccSTP
mixing will shift the helium isotopic
composition and Heat/3He ratios in
predictable ways --- allowing present
state of a geothermal reservoir to be
ascertained.
 1-D Fluid Flow Model
Through Range Front Fault

• Steady state 1-d advection (no

dispersion) upward flow scaled to
crustal thickness:

H crust * rs * P(He)  (R / Ra )meas  (R / Ra )crust 

q  
rf *[ 4 He]f ,mantle  (R / Ra )mant  (R / Ra )meas 

q = fluid upflow rate in fault zone

Hcrust = thickness of brittle + ductile crust
rs, rf = density of solid and fluid
P(He) = present day 4He production rate from
U+Th in fault zone minerals
(R/Ra) = helium isotopic composition
[4He]f,mantle = original 4He concentration in the
upwelling mantle fluid Calculated
from 3He in measured fluid.

• Dixie Valley geothermal wells (Hcrust = 15 km;

[U] = 1 ppm):

q ~ 0.5 mm/yr
 1-D Fluid Flow Model
Through Range Front Fault
 Fluid Mixing

0.9
SE Fum

0.8

Senator's Toe
0.7

Senator Fum DVGF

0.6
R/Ra

45-14 27-32
46-32
0.5 Sou Spr

Hyder Spr
0.4
GW

0.3 ??
66-21

0.2
0 50 100 150 200 250

F(4He)
 Dixie Valley Workshop
June, 2002

Summary

• Identifying and Monitoring Re-Injected Fluids

 Noble gases compliment traditional conservative tracers by providing

a more sensitive quantitative monitoring tool.
 Section 7 Wells: ~50-80% injectate and increasing ~20%/year

• Heat and Fluid Sources

 ~10-15% of heat derived from mantle, remainder from crustal

geothermal gradient.
 Helium isotopes imply vertical flow rates of mantle fluids through the
range front fault of ~0.5 mm/yr.
 Helium abundances and isotopic compositions require that Dixie
Valley thermal waters are a mixture of shallow young groundwater and
a deeper fluid indistinguishable from the fluids produced in the
Geothermal field.