Thermal state of La Palma (Canary Islands) from a data-integrative approach

The Canary Islands stand out as a prime region within Spanish territory with significant potential for harnessing high enthalpy geothermal resources due to their active volcanic activity. La Palma, one of the youngest islands in the archipelago, has witnessed at least seven volcanic eruptions over the past 500 years, with the most recent one occurring in 2021. Despite these compelling signs, the development of high enthalpy geothermal power plants has not been pursued on the island, mainly because of the financial risk involved in such project and the lack of detailed geophysical data that can support the correct characterization of the geothermal potential on the island. Accordingly, a data-integrative approach that aids the characterization of potential geothermal sites will reduce such uncertainties, supporting the drilling planning phase of the project.

Since the last eruption in 2021, several new geophysical experiments and projects have been undertaken within La Palma Island, aiming to understand the present-day configuration of the subsurface. In this project, we integrate the newly geophysical data, to build a 3D thermal model that is consistent with the geological structure of the island. We use the thermo-hydro-mechanic code golem developed in Section 4.5.

Ivone Jiménez-Munt
Researcher at 
GeoSciences Barcelona, Geo3BCN- CSIC
Group of Dynamics of the Lithosphere GDL
Scientific Director of the Laboratory of Geodynamic Modeling
Lluís Solé i Sabarís s/n. 08028 Barcelona. Spain
 

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