Low Temperature Geothermal Resource Evaluation of the Moses Lake-Ritzville-Connell Area, Washington

The study area is located in portions of Adams, Grant, Lincoln, and Franklin counties of eastern Washington. The area is representative of a complex stratigraphic and geohydrologic system within the basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. The regional piezometric surface and stratigraphic units dip towards the southwest. Fluid temperature data were collected by three different agencies. The Geological Engineering Section (WSU) at Washington State University, runs a continuous fluid temperature (FT) log as part of a complete suite of geophysical logs. The US Geological Survey (USGS) runs a continuous fluid FT log in conjunction with caliper and natural-gamma logs. Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Division of Geology and Earth Resources (DNR), have cooperated in gathering FT data. The DNR-SMU data were collected by taking temperature measurements at 5 m intervals. Bottom-hole temperatures (BHT) and bottom-hole depths (BHD) of selected wells in the study area are given in table 2. Some of the BHT data in table 2 may vary from those previously reported by WSU. These discrepancies are the result of changes in the calibration method of the FT tool. A technique developed by Giggane (1982) was used to determine the geothermal gradients within the area. A least squares linear regression analysis of the relationship between the BHT and BHD was used to determine the geothermal gradient of a given well data group (WDG). Well data groups were selected on the premises of geographic proximity, position within the regional groundwater flow system, land slope azimuth, and land slope dip. Some data points have been excluded from the linear regression analysis on the basis of factors such as duplicate logging of the same hole, down-hole flow, holes not logged to total depth, and questionable FT tool responses