2015, Ganz, Britta, Ask, Maria, Hangx, Suzanne, Bruckman, Viktor, Kühn, Michael

The development of deep geothermal energy sources in Germany still faces many uncertainties and high upfront investment costs. Methodical approaches to assess the exploration risk are thus of major importance for geothermal project development. Since 2002, expert reports to quantify the exploration risk for geothermal projects in Germany were carried out. These reports served as a basis for insurance contracts covering the exploration risk. Using data from wells drilled in the meantime, the reports were evaluated and the stated probabilities compared with values actually reached.

2014, Ziefle, G.

The South German Molasse Basin provides favourable conditions for geothermal plants. Nevertheless, micro-seismic events occur in the vicinity of the geothermal Unterhaching Gt2 well and seem to be caused by the geothermal plant. The injection and production are located in an existing fault system. The majority of seismic events takes place at a horizontal distance of 500 m or less of the borehole. However, none of the seismic events are located in the injection reservoir but in fact at a significantly greater depth. A deeper process understanding of the interacting thermal–hydraulic–mechanical effects in the vicinity of the well is desired. This article presents a significantly simplified 2-D model, investigating interactions of the stress field in the vicinity of the geothermal well and movements in the fault system. This might be of special interest, as the operation of the geothermal plant might lead to changes in the material and fracture properties on the one hand and in the equilibrium state on the other. A detailed description of the model, as well as various parameter studies, is presented. It can be seen that boundary conditions such as direction of the stress field in relation to the fault system, geometry of the fault system and parameters of the fractures have a significant influence on stresses in the proximity of the geothermal well. A variation in the spatial stress field in some parts of the fault system is to be expected. For the chosen assumptions the dimension of this variation is about 25% of the assumed stresses. Future work on this model might focus on the characteristics of the fault system, as well as on the influence of the coupled thermal–hydraulic–mechanical effects.

2015, Hübner, R., Heller, K., Günther, T., Kleber, A.

Besides floodplains, hillslopes are basic units that mainly control water movement and flow pathways within catchments of subdued mountain ranges. The structure of their shallow subsurface affects water balance, e.g. infiltration, retention, and runoff. Nevertheless, there is still a gap in the knowledge of the hydrological dynamics on hillslopes, notably due to the lack of generalization and transferability. This study presents a robust multi-method framework of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in addition to hydrometric point measurements, transferring hydrometric data into higher spatial scales to obtain additional patterns of distribution and dynamics of soil moisture on a hillslope. A geoelectrical monitoring in a small catchment in the eastern Ore Mountains was carried out at weekly intervals from May to December 2008 to image seasonal moisture dynamics on the hillslope scale. To link water content and electrical resistivity, the parameters of Archie's law were determined using different core samples. To optimize inversion parameters and methods, the derived spatial and temporal water content distribution was compared to tensiometer data. The results from ERT measurements show a strong correlation with the hydrometric data. The response is congruent to the soil tension data. Water content calculated from the ERT profile shows similar variations as that of water content from soil moisture sensors. Consequently, soil moisture dynamics on the hillslope scale may be determined not only by expensive invasive punctual hydrometric measurements, but also by minimally invasive time-lapse ERT, provided that pedo-/petrophysical relationships are known. Since ERT integrates larger spatial scales, a combination with hydrometric point measurements improves the understanding of the ongoing hydrological processes and better suits identification of heterogeneities.

2015, Ito, Kazumi, Tamura, Toru, Tsukamoto, Sumiko

[no abstract available]

2014, Hahne, Barbara, Thomas, Rüdiger, Bruckman, Viktor J., Hangx, Suzanne, Ask, Maria

For the economic success of a geothermal project the hydraulic properties and temperature of the geothermal reservoir are crucial. New methodologies in seismics, geoelectrics and reservoir geology are tested within the frame of the collaborative research programme “Geothermal Energy and High-Performance Drilling” (gebo). Within nine geoscientific projects, tools were developed that help in the evaluation and interpretation of acquired data. Special emphasis is placed on the investigation of rock properties, on the development of early reservoir assessment even during drilling, and on the interaction between the drilling devices and the reservoir formation. The propagation of fractures and the transport of fluid and heat within the regional stress field are investigated using different approaches (field studies, seismic monitoring, multi-parameter modelling). Geologic structural models have been created for simulation of the local stress field and hydromechanical processes. Furthermore, a comprehensive dataset of hydrogeochemical environments was collected allowing characterisation and hydrogeochemical modelling of the reservoir.

2015, Duller, Geoff A. T., Tooth, Stephen, Barham, Lawrence, Tsukamoto, Sumiko

Fluvial deposits can provide excellent archives of early hominin activity but may be complex to interpret, especially without extensive geochronology. The Stone Age site of Kalambo Falls, northern Zambia, has yielded a rich artefact record from dominantly fluvial deposits, but its significance has been restricted by uncertainties over site formation processes and a limited chronology. Our new investigations in the centre of the Kalambo Basin have used luminescence to provide a chronology and have provided key insights into the geomorphological and sedimentological processes involved in site formation. Excavations reveal a complex assemblage of channel and floodplain deposits. Single grain quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements provide the most accurate age estimates for the youngest sediments, but in older deposits the OSL signal from some grains is saturated. A different luminescence signal from quartz, thermally transferred OSL (TT-OSL), can date these older deposits. OSL and TT-OSL results are combined to provide a chronology for the site. Ages indicate four phases of punctuated deposition by the dominantly laterally migrating and vertically aggrading Kalambo River (∼500-300 ka, ∼300-50 ka, ∼50-30 ka, ∼1.5-0.49 ka), followed by deep incision and renewed lateral migration at a lower topographic level. A conceptual model for site formation provides the basis for improved interpretation of the generation, preservation, and visibility of the Kalambo archaeological record. This model highlights the important role of intrinsic meander dynamics in site formation and does not necessarily require complex interpretations that invoke periodic blocking of the Kalambo River, as has previously been suggested. The oldest luminescence ages place the Mode 2/3 transition between ∼500 and 300 ka, consistent with other African and Asian sites where a similar transition can be found. The study approach adopted here can potentially be applied to other fluvial Stone Age sites throughout Africa and beyond.

2014, Götz, Julia, Lüth, Stefan, Krawczyk, Charlotte M., Cosma, Calin

At the CO2 storage pilot site near the town of Ketzin (35 km west of Berlin, Germany) the sandstone reservoir at 630 m–650 m depth is thin and heterogeneous. The time-lapse analysis of zero-offset VSP measurements shows that CO2-induced amplitude changes can be observed on near-well corridor stacks. Further, we investigate whether CO2-induced amplitude changes in the monitoring data can be used to derive geometrical and petrophysical parameters governing the migration of CO2 within a brine saturated sandstone aquifer. 2D seismic-elastic modelling is done to test the processing workflow and to perform a wedge modelling study for estimation of the vertical expansion of the CO2 plume. When using the NRMS error as a measure for the similarity between the modelled and recorded repeat traces, the best match is achieved for a plume thickness of 6-7 m within the reservoir sandstone of 8 m thickness. With band limited impedance inversion a velocity reduction at the top of the reservoir of 30%, influenced by casing reverberations as well as CO2 injection, is found. The relation of seismic amplitude to CO2 saturated layer thickness and CO2-induced changes in P-wave velocities are important parameters for the quantification of the injected CO2 volume.

2014, Agemar, Thorsten, Weber, Josef, Schulz, Rüdiger

Germany uses its low enthalpy hydrothermal resources predominantly for balneological applications, space and district heating, but also for power production. The German Federal government supports the development of geothermal energy in terms of project funding, market incentives and credit offers, as well as a feed-in tariff for geothermal electricity. Although new projects for district heating take on average six years, geothermal energy utilisation is growing rapidly, especially in southern Germany. From 2003 to 2013, the annual production of geothermal district heating stations increased from 60 GWh to 530 GWh. In the same time, the annual power production increased from 0 GWh to 36 GWh. Currently, almost 200 geothermal facilities are in operation or under construction in Germany. A feasibility study including detailed geological site assessment is still essential when planning a new geothermal facility. As part of this assessment, a lot of geological data, hydraulic data, and subsurface temperatures can be retrieved from the geothermal information system GeotIS, which can be accessed online [1].

2014, Krumbholz, Michael, Hieronymus, Christoph F., Burchardt, Steffi, Troll, Valentin R., Tanner, David C., Friese, Nadine

Magmatic sheet intrusions (dykes) constitute the main form of magma transport in the Earth’s crust. The size distribution of dykes is a crucial parameter that controls volcanic surface deformation and eruption rates and is required to realistically model volcano deformation for eruption forecasting. Here we present statistical analyses of 3,676 dyke thickness measurements from different tectonic settings and show that dyke thickness consistently follows the Weibull distribution. Known from materials science, power law-distributed flaws in brittle materials lead to Weibull-distributed failure stress. We therefore propose a dynamic model in which dyke thickness is determined by variable magma pressure that exploits differently sized host-rock weaknesses. The observed dyke thickness distributions are thus site-specific because rock strength, rather than magma viscosity and composition, exerts the dominant control on dyke emplacement. Fundamentally, the strength of geomaterials is scale-dependent and should be approximated by a probability distribution.

2015, Baumgarten, H., Wonik, T.

A deep drilling campaign was performed at Lake Van (Turkey) to enhance the understanding of the paleoenvironmental conditions of the Middle East. Cores were collected, and the sediments are mainly composed of clayey silts and tephra deposits. Spectral gamma ray data were acquired (0–210 m below lake floor), and the uranium data were used for cyclostratigraphic studies to estimate the sedimentation rates and the time of deposition. Detection and analysis of climate cycles require continuous sedimentation and cannot be applied to these sediments which include numerous tephra layers. Therefore, these layers were removed, and a synthetic log was created (cumulative thickness of the tephra ≈50 m; remaining lacustrine sediments ≈160 m). High amplitudes were detected and correlated to Milanković cycles. Their evolution was analyzed using the sliding window technique. The sedimentation rates varied from 22 to 33 cm/ka in the upper section. The sediments between the lake floor and a depth of 210 m were deposited over a period of 587 ka. Our results agree with core interpretations (e.g., correlation of total organic carbon with marine isotope stages) which suggest a time span of deposition of 600 ka. High-frequency cycles were detected and correlated with interstadials from the North Greenland δ18O record for the past 75 ka. The two datasets agreed closely. We conclude that climate signals, even on sub-Milanković scale, are imprinted in uranium of these sediments, and cyclostratigraphic methods are applicable if event layers are subtracted from the sediment record.