A numerical model for the magmatic heat reservoir of the Las Tres Virgenes volcanic complex, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Introduction
The Tres Virgenes Volcanic Complex (TVVC) is a Quaternary structure that has been subject to intense research in recent years. This field currently hosts one of the four geothermal power plants operated in Mexico (10 MWe) by the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE), and it represents a promising alternative for diversification of energy supply on the Baja California Peninsula, currently disconnected from the Electric National Network. New insights on the eruptive history and magma reservoirs of this volcanic complex provide a valuable opportunity to look into its recent thermal evolution. We present a numerical model of heat transport in order to elucidate the magmatic processes that govern the present state of the heat reservoir.
Most modeling of the cooling of magma reservoirs has focused on various fundamental magmatic processes. For instance, Usselman and Hodge (1978) analyzed the cooling and crystallizing of shallow basaltic magma chambers and explained commonly observed eruption rates of basaltic lavas as a consequence of periodic magma replenishment. Compositional layering in solidified basaltic intrusions was investigated by McBirney and Noyes (1979), who reported that layered mineral segregation is governed by chemical and thermal diffusion processes rather than with crystal settling by gravitation. Huppert and Sparks (1980) addressed heat transport in basic magma chambers after re-injection of ultrabasic magmas. Their model explained cyclic layering as a result of density differences, and also concluded that most of the temperature decline in the re-injected magma occurs within a few weeks to a few years as a consequence of vigorous convective transport. Marsh (1981) proposed a methodology to estimate the sequence of crystallization of lavas based on a probabilistic approach and also related crystallinity to the probability of eruption. Later, a series of authors investigated the critical role of magma convection on cooling, crystallization, and differentiation in early stages of emplacement (Marsh and Maxey, 1985; Brandeis and Jaupart, 1986; Martin et al., 1987; Marsh, 1989; Worster et al., 1990; Bagdassarov and Fradkov, 1993; Hort, 1997). Huppert and Sparks (1988) described the formation of granitic plutons as the result of heating of crustal rocks by underlaying basaltic sills. Pinkerton and Norton (1995) conducted experiments to evaluate rheological properties of basaltic magmas. Hort (1998) addressed the changes of liquidus temperature of magmas as functions of volatile concentration and magma mixing. A temporal analysis of cooling and chemical differentiation in a magma chamber was conducted by Kuritani et al. (2007) based on data of Rishiri volcano, Japan. Michaut and Jaupart (2011) studied the cooling of magma chambers in relation with their emplacement process; that is, magma is emplaced gradually or rapidly.
More recently, Eichelberger (2020) reviewed the few in situ studies of magma cooling, namely, Kilauea Iki lava lake, Hawaii, and Krafla magma-hydrothermal system, Iceland. He describes the Magma-hydrothermal boundary in these systems according with the concept of cracking front (Lister, 1974). In another recent investigation, Lamy-Chappuis et al. (2020) explored volatile outgassing in magma chambers and the role it plays in their cooling history.
There is also considerable progress in modeling transport and thermodynamics of hydrothermal fluids, particularly with a process-based approach (Ingebritsen et al., 2010). Site-specific models however, often face challenges such as poor field data availability, which leads to under constrained models. Structural complexity and heterogeneity can also be a major issue in the definition of numerical models. Nonetheless, continued efforts are required to build rigorously constrained models, taking advantage of novel methodologies for data acquisition and processing (e.g. Petrillo et al. (2013)), as well as increasingly efficient numerical and computational tools (e.g. Afanasyev et al. (2015)). In this context, we propose a model for the magmatic heat reservoir of the TVVC based on multidisciplinary field studies. The model is intended as a sound framework that can be progressively refined as more data are incorporated.
Section snippets
Geological background
The TVVC is emplaced in a tectonically active zone (Fig. 1). The tectonic setting has its origin in the transition from subduction to a rift system associated with the opening of the Gulf of California in middle Miocene (~12 Ma), (Saunders et al., 1987; Conly et al., 2005). Early volcanic activity includes the emplacement of two eruptive centers at about 6.5 Ma: the Reforma and Aguajito ranges. The TVVC consists of three northeast-southwest oriented stratovolcanoes, from the oldest to the
Methods and solution
The conceptual model of the geothermal field is based on several field campaigns comprising detailed outcrop geology, eruptive history and seismic logs (Avellán et al., 2018, Avellán et al., 2019; Sosa-Ceballos et al., 2019; Vilchis-Garcia et al., 2019). The main methodological aspects of this field work and the results used to build our model are presented in this section, and further details can be found in the references provided.
Sensitivity analysis
A sensitivity analysis was conducted in order to determine how model parameters affect the numerical result. We chose the water content, XH2O, the overburden pressure gradient, dP/dz, the background heat flow, qb, and the ambient temperature, Tamb, as potentially influential input parameters. In order to evaluate the impact of these parameters on the solution, a norm of the numerically obtained solution vector (T) is defined as follows:where T and ΔV are the temperature and
Conclusions
In order to gain further understanding of the thermal evolution of the Las Tres Virgenes Volcanic Complex, a transient temperature model was based on recent field studies, including structural geology, geochronology, geochemistry of rocks and enhanced seismic tomography. These new field data allowed us to achieve a high resolution structural model of the volcanic complex, an estimate of the radiogenic heat generation, and direct description of the heat reservoir. The cooling of the heat
Author statement
Dr. Fernando J. Guerrero: conceptual modeling, numerical modeling, software and coding, post-processing, and writing original draft. Dr. Giovanni Sosa-Ceballos: investigation, field work (petrology), conceptual modeling, writing original draft. Dr. Rosa M. Prol-Ledesma: resources and project administration. Dra. Mariana P. Jácome-Paz: investigation (cooling of magmatic systems) and post-processing. Dr. Marco Calò: investigation (Enhanced Seismic Tomography), data curation, and pre-processing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgement
The first author is thankful to CONACyT for sponsoring this research. We thank DGTIC UNAM for providing access to the computer cluster Miztli, through project number LANCAD-UNAM-DGTIC-237. We also thank Guillermo Cisneros Máximo for his help in production of Fig. 1, Fig. 2. We are specially grateful to Martina Zucchi and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and insightful comments to our manuscript.
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