Carson Hot Springs, also referred to in the past as Swift's or Shaw's Hot Springs, are located in the north part of Carson City, north of Hot Springs Road, and west of the west end of the Carson City Airport. Water for a swimming pool and spa is pumped from a shallow well north of the pool (Garside and Schilling, 1979, p. 6). The springs apparently have their source at the contact between Mesozoic bedrock and alluvial deposits of Carson Valley (Trexler, 1977; Trexler and others, 1980). No faults have been mapped there, but several possibilities exist for nearby faults to be the source of rising thermal groundwater, which could then follow the bedrock-alluvium contact to the surface.
Stable isotope data for water at Carson Hot Springs indicates that it is depleted isotopically compared to most water in the basin, suggesting that recharge for the springs is not from within the basin (Szecsody and others, 1984). The water at the springs was dated by the 14C method at 12,000 to 14,000 years, suggesting that recharge for these springs probably took place in a colder climate (Szecsody and others, 1984). However, it is likely that there is mixing of thermal and nonthermal groundwater in the northern part of the Eagle Valley basin (Szecsody, 1982). The maximum temperature reported in Carson Hot Springs is about 48.9°C (Szecsody, 1982). Because the range of estimates based on several chemical geothermometers is narrow for Carson Hot Springs, the temperature estimates may reflect the maximum temperature to be expected at economic drilling depths. Trexler and others (1980) suggested this estimated maximum temperature may be 75-79°C.
An approximately 7 km2 area of thermal groundwater around and to the south and west of Carson Hot Springs can be postulated (Tingley and others, 1998, figs. 5-10) based on contours of groundwater temperature of Szecsody (1982, p. 138) and the locations of Carson Hot Spring and a warm well (Carson City No. 7 well, near the center of the east edge of Sec. 6, T15N, R20E).
Photos
Hot water pool, Carson Hot Springs, Carson City, Nevada.
Geothermal swimming pool at Carson Hot Springs, Carson City
Nevada State Prison Spring - warm pond and old greenhouse, Carson City, NV.