Determination of Hydrothermal Prospects in Paipa Geothermal Region (Boyacá, Colombia) Using Remote Sensing and Field Data

Abstract

Geothermal resources (e.g. hot springs) are found with the help of field techniques, such as geological, geochemistry and geophysical. These techniques in some occasions are difficult to apply because of the limit access to the research area, rising operational costs and constrained spatially the exploration areas. The thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing is an important tool for the exploration of geothermal resources, due to the low cost and high efficiency in the study of large geographic areas. The aim of this study is to use thermal imagery of satellite remote sensing and combined with geological-geophysical data, for spatial determination of exploratory prospects of hot springs in the geothermal region of Paipa, Boyacá. The images used in this study are from satellites Landsat-7 ETM+, Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS, MODIS, ALOS-PALSAR and Pléiades. Also, field data is used, such as soil temperature, surface temperature, air temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and thermal imagery of surface geothermal manifestations. The Landsat thermal bands were radiometrically calibrated, then atmospherically and surface emissivity corrected, applying single channel and split window algorithms, for Landsat-7 ETM+ and Landsat-8 TIRS, respectively. The field data helped to correct the thermal bands. And the soil temperature data are used to create a subsurface temperature map at 1-meter depth. Once primary and secondary data is had, in a geographic information system (GIS) is implemented an unweighted spatial model, which use four input indicators (satellite temperature index, soil temperature index, structural lineaments index and iso-resistivity index) to determine the areas with higher probability to find geothermal fluids. Six prospects are highlighted for hydrothermal fluid extraction, in which two of them are already known. Results allow to concluded that thermal remote sensing are useful to map geothermal anomalies in the Paipa region, and by using these anomalies plus geological-geophysical information is possible to determine exact exploration areas.