Baltazor Hot Springs are located in Sec. 13, T46N, R28E at the north end of Continental Lake. They are adjacent to a fault that bounds the east side of the Pueblo Mountains and is a small part of a lineament that extends from Soldier Meadow Hot Springs through Baltazor Hot Springs and into Oregon (Hose and Taylor, 1974). This lineament is at least 105 km long and can be seen in the fault pattern shown on the geologic map of Nevada (Stewart and Carlson, 1978). Hose and Taylor (1974) have suggested that this N30-35°E lineament existed as a large fault in the early Tertiary terrain and that tectonism that occurred after the Oligocene and Miocene volcanic rocks were deposited resulted in modest renewed displacement that manifested itself in the volcanic cover. Hulen (1983) suggested that the geothermal fluid flow is controlled by the intersection of the northeast-striking Basin and Range fault with an older, northwest-striking normal fault system.
Water temperatures at Baltazor Hot Springs are reported to be at or near boiling (93-98°C; Mariner and others, 1974; Hulen, 1983), and small amounts of both travertine and siliceous sinter are present. Nehring and Mariner (1979, p. 486) estimated a reservoir temperature of 152°C in 1979. Hulen (1983) reported that the springs are believed to be presently precipitation silica, an indication of a reservoir temperature of at least 180ºC. Earth Power Production Company extensively explored the Baltazor Hot Springs and McGee’s geothermal potential in the 1970s and 80s by drilling geothermal test wells such as the 771 m well 45-14 (SW¼ Section 14, T46N, R28E) in 1982 (Barton and Purkey, 1993, p. 13; Blackett and others, 1986). The deepest test well was 1109 m with a maximum temperature of 120ºC (GeothermEx, 2004). It penetrated about 430 m of preTertiary schist and metavolcanic rocks in the lower part of the hole (Hulen, 1979). Thermal-gradient data for the area are reported by Earth Power Production Co. (1977, 1979a, 1980a), and geophysical investigations in Edquist (1981).