Numerous hot springs are located in SE¼ Sec. 5 and Sec. 8, T22N, R35E along the west side of Dixie Valley, about 12 km north of the community of Dixie Valley. The springs have a reported temperature of 72ºC (Mariner and others, 1974). In 1983, both seismic emissions (ground noise) and microearthquake surveys were performed for Chaffee Geothermal at Dixie Hot Springs. Seismic emissions anomalies, which commonly occur at cross faults, suggested that Cottonwood Canyon, about 5 km to the southeast, is fault controlled and the fault extends into the valley (Katz, 1984, p. 507). In the early 1980s, Sunoco Energy Development Company (Sunedco) drilled several geothermal exploration wells near this site as part of a larger exploration of the Dixie Valley geothermal area (Blackett and others, 1986, p. 14). The mountain front fault, which crops out about 1.3 km to the west of the springs, is reported to dip 35º to the east. Fluids moving up along that fault apparently boil in the shallow subsurface there. Native sulfur is being deposited today from fumaroles, and ground temperatures have been measured at 94ºC (Kennedy-Bowdoin and others, 2003, 2004).
Cold springs are present about 1.6 km to the south in Sec. 17, T22N, R35E (Dixie Valley 7.5-minute Quadrangle). The springs seem to be along a northeast-trending line which may be the continuation of a range-front fault present to the north at the Dixie Comstock Mine. Movement was reported along this fault in the 1954 Dixie Valley earthquake (Willden and Speed, 1974). The estimated thermal reservoir temperature is 144-145°C, using the silica and Na-K-Ca geothermometers (Mariner and others, 1974).
Ten to fifteen kilometers south of Dixie Hot Springs (T21N, R34E and R35E) a number of flowing wells are found in the central part of southern Dixie Valley. These wells, with slightly anomalous temperatures of 21-24.4°C, may be related to the same thermal system active elsewhere along the west side of Dixie Valley.