Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

We used synthetic aperture radar interferograms to image ground subsidence that occurred over the Dixie Valley geothermal field during different time intervals between 1992 and 1997. Linear elastic inversion of the subsidence that occurred between April, 1996 and March, 1997 revealed that the dominant sources of deformation during this time period were large changes in fluid volumes at shallow depths within the valley fill above the reservoir. The distributions of subsidence and subsurface volume change support a model in which reduction in pressure and volume of hot water discharging into the valley fill from localized upflow along the Stillwater range frontal fault is caused by drawdown within the upflow zone resulting from geothermal production. Our results also suggest that an additional source of fluid volume reduction in the shallow valley fill might be similar drawdown within piedmont fault zones. Shallow groundwater flow in the vicinity of the field appears to be controlled on the NW by a mapped fault and to the SW by a lineament of as yet unknown origin.