Granite Ranch

A thermal area of unknown extent is present near the south end of Hualapai Flat about 1.5 km south of Granite Ranch in Sec. 35, T34N, R23E and Sec. 2, T33N, R23E. This area is about 9 km south of the Fly Geyser geothermal area. A water well reportedly hit hot water in this area ca. 1917, and there are unsubstantiated reports that it flowed hot water with a steam plume visible for many miles (Trexler and Stewart, 2003). In 1965(?) Western Geothermal, Inc. drilled a 244-m geothermal test in the area. It was abandoned due to shallow high temperatures and blow out (Grose and Keller, 1978; GeothermEx, 2004). In 1972 a 140.8 m well was drilled by Cordero Exploration near the abandoned hot water well. A temperature of 105ºC was reported at a depth of 40 m in alluvium, with a temperature reversal below 46 m, to 93.6ºC at 140 m depth (Dennis Trexler , written commun., 2003, from George Berry files). This reversal suggests lateral flow of thermal water through an aquifer at that depth. A constant temperature of about 93.5ºC after entering granodiorite at 116 m suggests that the thermal water in the alluvial aquifer moves there from greater depth along a concealed conduit, probably a fault (Olmsted and others, 1975, p. 128). Hot water was also reported from a U.S. Geological Survey test hole in NW¼ Sec. 2.

Chemistry