38 GRC Bulletin l www.geothermal.org

A GRC Workshop is always a great opportunity to learn about the latest developments in geothermal science. This year we mixed it up a bit! Instead of being stuck in a lecture room and viewing dull PowerPoint presentations why not see Mother Nature at her steamy best out in the field!

Two buses set off from Salt Lake City on June 22 and over the next five days and 1,000 miles through four states we would visit some of the best examples of surface geothermal features on the planet, amongst incredible natural beauty and wildlife habitats.

A view of the Porcelain Basin at the Norris Geyser Basin area of Yellowstone National Park. Photo BY Joe moore

Yellowstone – A Geothermal Wonderland

By Ian Crawford

First of all we paid a visit to the U.S. Geothermal Raft River power plant in southern Idaho. This 15.8 MW (gross) capacity 2-level binary facility began operation in 2008. Operations and maintenance manager Butch Mayfield was the perfect host and gave us a guided tour of the plant.

Clay Jones, a geologist at the Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City gave an overview of the geologic setting of the Raft River geothermal field, adjacent to the raft River Mountains, one of the few west-east trending mountain ranges in the American west – a geologic oddity indeed!

Out in the sagebrush scrub surrounding the Raft River plant a U.S. Department of Energy EGS Demonstration Project is being conducted under the direction of the trip co-leader Joe Moore of EGI. The data from well RRG-9 pressure/flow response rates is being interpreted to improve understanding of geothermal reservoir response to stimulation. EGI Ph.D. student, Jacob Bradford (center, above) presented an update on the exciting EGS work at raft River and reported the creation of fractures at about 5,600 feet depth in the 5,900 feet deep well. Joe Moore said that the results indicate that stimulation is successfully producing a reservoir and that flow rates were sufficient for possible commercial production.

Old Faithful did not disappoint. Thousands of park visitors surround the most famous geyser in the world waiting for an eruption on average every 88 minutes ± 10 minutes.

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On to Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world, established in 1872, primarily because of its extraordinary geysers, hot springs, mudpots and steam vents, and other wonders such as the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River (above).

Tour co-leader Duncan Foley, (above) Professor of Geosciences at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State, ably led us from feature to feature, educating the group on the geothermal processes at work within the Yellowstone caldera. Joe Moore also helped explain the underlying geologic structures.

Matt Terry gets up close with the columnar joints of the Sheepeater basalt cliffs.

The amazing colors of the Grand Prismatic Spring are from “thermophiles” — microorganisms that thrive in hot temperatures.

At Mammoth Hot Springs park geologist Hank Heasler (pictured above) and his colleague Cheryl Jaworowski led a fascinating tour of the travertine terraces formed by thermal water rising through limestone, carrying high amounts of the dissolved calcium carbonate to be deposited in brightly colored layers on the surface.

From left to right, the fellow travelers pose in front of the majestic Grand Tetons. Hector Gutierrez Puente, Tom Powell, Joe Moore, Laura Garcher, Salvador Espindola Hernandez, Rebecca Lange, Phil Wannamaker, Lisa Shevenell, Duncan Foley, Paul Brophy, Ian Crawford, Jacob Bradford, Pete Stelling, Matt Terry, Ben Barker, Aleta Finnila and Clay Jones.

~~~~~~~More than 530 photos were taken on

the trip, together with a few dozen short videos. All are available to view on the GRC Flicker website at: www.flickr.com/photos/geothermalresourcescouncil/

For the Yellowstone Workshop Album go to https://flic.kr/s/aHskeh5fTp or scan the QR Code on the left. n

40 GRC Bulletin l www.geothermal.org

All Photos, except where noted. BY ian craWForD