Preliminary assessment of the geothermal potential of Rosario de la Frontera area (Salta, NW Argentina): Insight from hydro-geological, hydro-geochemical and structural investigations

Geological Map of the Tocomar Basin (Puna Plateau, NW Argentina). Implication for the Geothermal System Investigation

“…Alto Tocomar Formation (Middle-Upper (?) Pleistocene) (10) It consists of a complex volcanic succession made up of small-volume ignimbrites, pyroclastic surges and fall deposits of rhyolitic composition generated by two [20,27,83] or three eruptive episodes (this work, Figure 6). In this paper, this succession has been subdivided into three members: El Apeadero, Quebrada Largadero and El Puesto members based on their geometry and juvenile and lithic clast contents (Figure 6).…”

“…This is due mostly to the lack of detailed surficial geological information in several geothermal areas limiting the development of accurate conceptual models and interpretation of the available geophysical and geochemical data. In this sense, in recent years several research groups and private companies have revealed the existence of numerous sites of interest for geothermal exploitation in north-west Argentina, e.g., [4,5,[8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…This is due mostly to the lack of detailed surficial geological information in several geothermal areas limiting the development of accurate conceptual models and interpretation of the available geophysical and geochemical data. In this sense, in recent years several research groups and private companies have revealed the existence of numerous sites of interest for geothermal exploitation in north-west Argentina, e.g., [4,5,[8][9][10][11][12][13]. One of the most promising geothermal prospects in north-western Argentina is the Tocomar Geothermal Field (TGF) [8,14], alongside with other systems in the Puna region [13] and in the Subandean fold-and thrust belt [4,5,10,11].…”

“…In this sense, in recent years several research groups and private companies have revealed the existence of numerous sites of interest for geothermal exploitation in north-west Argentina, e.g., [4,5,[8][9][10][11][12][13]. One of the most promising geothermal prospects in north-western Argentina is the Tocomar Geothermal Field (TGF) [8,14], alongside with other systems in the Puna region [13] and in the Subandean fold-and thrust belt [4,5,10,11]. The TGF is located in the Puna plateau across the NW-SE-trending Calama-Olacapato-El Toro (COT) lineament [15][16][17][18], one of the major active tectonic lineament in the Central Andes (Figures 1 and 2).…”

New geochemical and isotopic insights to evaluate the geothermal resource of the hydrothermal system of Rosario de la Frontera (Salta, northern Argentina)

“…In this area, numerous thermal springs occur, representing an important touristic attraction since 1880. Geophysical and hydrogeological investigations (Moreno Espelta et al, 1975;Seggiaro et al, 1995Seggiaro et al, , 1997Barcelona et al, 2013;Invernizzi et al, 2014) have shown that the Rosario de la Frontera thermal manifestations are fed by a hydrothermal system (Rosario de la Frontera Hydrothermal System, hereafter RFHS) that consists of two main aquifers at ~2400 and 150 m depth, respectively. A preliminary evaluation for the volume of the deepest aquifer, hosted within Cretaceous sedimentary units, accounts for 53 km 3 (Maffucci et al, 2012(Maffucci et al, , 2013.…”