ABSTRACT
The study of geothermal systems is nowadays a topic of great importance because of the huge amount of energy that could be converted in electricity for human consumption from such sources. Among the various geophysical methods employed to study geothermal reservoirs, the magnetotelluric (MT) method is capable to reveal the internal structures of the subsurface and interpret the geological structures from the electrical resistivity. We present the first 3D resistivity model of La Palma (Canary archipelago, Spain) obtained from a dataset of 44 broadband magnetotelluric soundings distributed around the island. Our results highlight the presence of resistivity anomalies, spatially coinciding with density anomalies present in literature. In the north of the island, a high resistivity anomaly can be interpreted as the signature of an old intrusive body beneath the Taburiente caldera. In the south, a complex resistivity structure around the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge could be indicative of presence of an active geothermal system. In particular, low-resistivity anomalies, located in a high-fractured zone, have values compatible with clay alteration caps (illite and illite-smectite). Such a result suggests the presence of hot rocks, or a dike system, heating fluids in the interior of Cumbre Vieja volcanic system.
ABSTRACT
The Cenozoic collision between the Indian and Asian continents formed the Tibetan plateau, beginning about 70 million years ago. Since this time, at least 1,400 km of convergence has been accommodated by a combination of underthrusting of Indian and Asian lithosphere, crustal shortening, horizontal extrusion and lithospheric delamination. Rocks exposed in the Himalaya show evidence of crustal melting and are thought to have been exhumed by rapid erosion and climatically forced crustal flow. Magnetotelluric data can be used to image subsurface electrical resistivity, a parameter sensitive to the presence of interconnected fluids in the host rock matrix, even at low volume fractions. Here we present magnetotelluric data from the Tibetan-Himalayan orogen from 77 degrees E to 92 degrees E, which show that low resistivity, interpreted as a partially molten layer, is present along at least 1,000 km of the southern margin of the Tibetan plateau. The inferred low viscosity of this layer is consistent with the development of climatically forced crustal flow in Southern Tibet.
