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| The (relatively) new barrier at Geothermal Drive |
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| Rolling desert west of Tortugas Mountain |
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| There's a dog at the center of this photo |
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| Primitive trap-like structure in an isolated area |
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| At desert's edge |
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| One last look back at Tortoise Mountain |
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Geothermal Start
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Opting for Our Forest
Sundial called Willow We were thinking of doing one of our favorite high country hikes--the Rim Trail (T105) near Sunspot--but opted to do t...
4 comments:
I wonder what that trap-like structure has been used for.
What's the origin of the name Geothermal Drive, Packrat? Are they out there exploring for geothermal resources, or are there hot springs in the area?
Scott: Here's the answer to your question about Geothermal Drive.
(In 1949, the Clary and Ruther State 1 oil test adjacent
the southeast boundary of the NMSU campus encountered hot
water and “steam.” Later in the mid-to-late 1950s, a couple of
shallow domestic wells drilled within a half mile south of the
campus east of I-25 in the present day Las Alturas
neighborhood encountered “warm and salty” water (Figure 1).
Until the 1970s, these reports of geothermal heat in the area
were largely treated as a curiosity. Then during a period of
five years between 1973 and 1979, New Mexico State
University experienced a major increase in the cost of natural
gas that exceeded 400 percent. Through the vision and
leadership of Gerald Thomas, former NMSU President and
Harold Daw, former NMSU Vice President of Research,
campus expertise in renewable energy was mobilized to find
a cost effective solution. Because of reports of hot water
adjacent to campus, NMSU faculty, staff and students began
a campus geothermal exploration program that identified a
potential geothermal resource with geologic and geophysical
studies including the drilling of shallow heat flow holes
(Dicey and Morgan, 1981; Gross and Icerman, 1983; Jiracek
and Gerety, 1978; King and Kelley, 1980; Swanberg, 1975).
Deeper exploration drilling and testing confirmed that suitable
low temperature geothermal resource existed beneath the
eastern end of the campus (Chaturvedi, 1979 and 1981;
Cunniff, et al., 1981).
http://geoheat.oit.edu/bulletin/bull23-4/art7.pdf
Thanks for the information about the geothermal resources. I'll bet they'd be a bit problematic because of the "salty" water, which could be corrosive to piping. It sounds like the university never pursued this source of heat, though--which it sounds like they should have, given your temperatures lately!
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