One additional method may be used in the future to locate blind geothermal systems. Several thousand shallow (12") temperature measurements were made for a study conducted at Salt Wells in collaboration with Amp Resources (prior to their being acquired by Enel). After a strong, structurally controlled thermal anomaly was identified on the north end of the study area, a 2 m hole was dug into a playa in which the water temperature at the bottom of the hole was 84.8°C. Water was allowed to collect in the bottom of the hole and sampled. The chemistry of the sampled water was similar to geothermal waters sampled elsewhere at Salt Wells and the calculated geothermometer temperature is 192°C, suggesting that a high temperature resource may lie beneath the playa. Hence, such playa sampling in other localities may result in additional discoveries.
