New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Inflows of geothermal fluid chemicals to the Waikato River catchment, New
Zealand
M. H. TIMPERLEY
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 109-695
Auckland, New Zealand
B. A. HUSER
Environment Waikato
P. O. Box 4010
Hamilton East, New Zealand
Abstract Data collected from two monitoring programmes
conducted by Environment Waikato, New Zealand, have been used to estimate the
mass flows of Li, B, As, SO4, and Cl from geothermal fluids entering the
Waikato River up stream of Lake Whakamaru. Chloride is the major anion in
geothermal waters and is closely related to Li, B, and As. The total river
water mass flow of Cl is 4600 g s-1 at the outlet of Lake Whakamaru
and of this, 78% originates from geothermal fluids; 13% flows into Lake Taupo,
and 65% enters the river down stream of Lake Taupo. The Wairakei field
contributes the largest fraction of 45% and geothermal fluid flows which were
not directly measured in the monitoring programmes contribute 23%. The
remaining 10% derives from measured flows from 14 of the 16 known geothermal
fields. The origins of Li, As, and B closely follow those of Cl. Geothermal SO4
is produced from the oxidation of H2S carried by geothermal steam and the
estimates made of the mass flows originating from geothermal fluids are less
certain than those for Cl.
Keywords geothermal fluid; dissolved chemicals; mass flows;
Waikato River
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1996: Vol 30:
525-535
0028-8330/96/3004-0525 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1996
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (816K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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