Heat flow in the Garibaldi volcanic belt, a possible Canadian geothermal energy resource area
The geothermal heat flow has been determined in four boreholes drilled within the area of the Garibaldi volcanic belt of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The program was designed to investigate a suspected geothermal reservoir and the surrounding area as part of a continuing program of the Canadian Federal Government to assess the geothermal energy potential in western Canada.The measurements, after application of corrections for sediment diffraction, topography, Pleistocene thermal history, and uplift and erosion, fall into two distinct catagories. Three of the measurements, at distances greater than 10 km from Mt. Meager, have a mean of 79 mW m−2 with a standard deviation of 10 mW m−2, and the single measurement near Mt. Meager indicates a heat flux of 132 mW m−2. All these measurements are suspect to a certain degree because of groundwater movement at and around the measurement sites. The three distant observations are similar to others in the Cordilleran thermal zone, whereas the result at Mt. Meager appears to be anomalous. This pattern suggests that near the Mt. Meager area heat is being transported by means other than simple thermal conduction, consistent with other studies that indicate the presence of a geothermal reservoir of unknown size.