Geological interpretation of Mount Ciremai geothermal system from remote sensing and magneto-teluric analysis

Abstract

The exploration of geothermal system at Mount Ciremai has been started since the early 1980s and has just been studied carefully since the early 2000s. Previous studies have detected the potential of geothermal system and also the groundwater mechanism feeding the system. This paper will discuss the geothermal exploration based on regional scale surface temperature analysis with Landsat image to have a more detail interpretation of the geological setting and magneto-telluric or MT survey at prospect zones, which identified by the previous method, to have a more exact and in depth local scale structural interpretation. Both methods are directed to pin point appropriate locations for geothermal pilot hole drilling and testing. We used four scenes of Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper or ETM+ data to estimate the surface manifestation of a geothermal system. Temporal analysis of Land Surface Temperature or LST was applied and coupled with field temperature measurement at seven locations. By combining the TTM with NDVI threshold, the authors can identify six zones with surface temperature anomaly. Among these six zones, three zones were interpreted to have a relation with geothermal system and the other three zones were related to human activities. Then, MT survey was performed at the three geothermal prospects identified from previous remote sensing analysis, at the east flank of the volcano, to estimate the detail subsurface structures. The MT survey successfully identified four buried normal faults in the area, which positively are a part of the conduits in the geothermal system east of Mount Ciremai. From MT analysis, the author also found the locations of volcanic zone, bedrock zone, and the prospect zone. The combination of Landsat analysis on regional scale and MT measurement on a more detail scale has proven to be the reliable method to map geothermal prospect area.