| Title | New Geothermal Resource Findings Around the Menderes Massif in the Western Anatolia, Turkey |
|---|---|
| Authors | Akman, Ali Unal; Kuyumcu, Ozgur Caglan; Onc, Seyhan; Destegul, Umut Z.; Baydar, Volkan; Vural, Ilker; Balci, Kadir; Cuhadar, Selen |
| Year | 2009 |
| Conference | Geothermal Resources Council Transactions |
| Keywords | Exploration of Concealed Geothermal Reservoirs; The Western Anatolia; The Menderes Massif; Remote Sensing; Neotectonic |
| Abstract | The western Anatolia is one of the most active tectonic and seismic areas of the world. It is widely accepted that the deep seated metamorphic core complexes in the western Anatolia started rapid exhumation with the beginning of extensional tectonics in Late Oligocene (?)-Lower Miocene. The horst and rift systems have been developed in different directions with suprasubduction magmatisms from calc-alkaline to alkaline characters between Miocene to Quaternary periods. The Menderes Massif, started exhumation by low-angle detachment faults in Miocene, is one of the largest core complexes in the world and has been fractured into horsts and grabens by high-angle normal faults recently. These grabens_Büyük Menderes, Ala?ehir (Gediz) and Simav_ have the hottest geothermal reservoirs known in Turkey and Küçük Menderes graben has been exploring in this project. In order to distinguish the main neotectonic features, remote sensing techniques were applied using the satellite data such as Landsat and Aster images, and also products of digital elevation models. Then, field examinations were carried out to determine active branches of the faults and their properties. Geophysical surveys have been performed on the potential geothermal locations selected. The results show that the economical geothermal reservoirs for electricity production may have been located between 1500- 3500m depths from the surface in some areas of the Menderes Massif, where it is formerly known as unpredicted or very low for geothermal potential. One of them is the Ortaklar geothermal area in the western part of the Büyük Menderes Graben that has been drilled for gradient tests and got values between 70–98º C in depths 80-120m, and 143º C in 1406m exploration well. The aim of the Project is to explore the concealed geothermal resources around the Menderes Massif region. Therefore, this article is going to focus on the general studies on the massif and obtained the first results by this project. |