Selection of suitable geothermometers for predicting the subsurface temperatures with higher accuracy: A study based on globally distributed geothermal field data

Abstract

Subsurface reservoir temperature of a geothermal province is popularly estimated using various geothermometers but it is necessary to examine the suitability of them. Present work studies the performances of five popular geothermometers Na-K, Na-K-Ca, Quartz, Chalcedony and K-Mg to forecast the reservoir temperature of 148 geothermal springs located in different parts of the world. The predicted temperature of the geothermometers have been compared with the bottom whole temperature (BHT) of the wells drilled in those geothermal fields to check the accuracy of the predictions.

The results show that performance of a particular geothermometer is significantly affected by the type of rocks in a geothermal reservoir. Na-K geothermometer provides highest accuracy for the basaltic and sandstone reservoir rocks with average errors 15 % and 11 % respectively. The quartz geothermometer also provides almost equally good prediction for sandstone. The best result for a granitic reservoir rock is obtained by Na-K-Ca with an average error about 15 %. The carbonate reservoir rocks are the most difficult reservoir rock to use any geothermometer as lowest error of prediction using any geothermometer is about 26 %. The chalcedony performed the poorest among all geothermometers and is not recommended for any reservoir rock types under considerations. Thus, the study on global geothermal fields shows that the reservoir rock type must be considered to select a geothermometer else it may cause very high error in prediction of reservoir temperature. However, none of the geothermometer could produce error less than 10 %. It is worth noting that the present study though establishes the suitability of a geothermometer for a particular lithology, it does not explore the rationale for such a suitability.