International collaboration to investigate the Tocomar Geothermal Field, Argentina
The Andes is the largest undeveloped geothermal region in the world. Professor Dan Faulkner just returned from fieldwork funded by the Royal Society in the Puna Plateau in NW Argentina.
He is working with Dr Ruben Filipovich and Dr Fernando Hongn of the University of Salta to try to understand the role of ancient basement faults in controlling the flow of fluids to the Tocomar Geothermal Field. Geological mapping and samples collected to test for permeability in the Liverpool Rock Deformation Laboratory will reveal how the faults channel fluid flow from the volcanic range in the high Andes to the geothermal field.