Rates of thermal water discharge from the hot water geothermal system beneath the Steamboat Hills in Western Nevada, USA

Following up on limited efforts over the past ∼30 years, we report here results of thermal-water discharge computations from 24 separate sampling events in Steamboat Creek south of Reno NV over the period 2008-2016. The most likely source of thermal water in Steamboat Creek is subsurface outflow from the adjacent geothermal system beneath the Steamboat Hills, a complex of Quaternary rhyolite and basaltic andesite located some 10 km south of Reno, NV. A chloride-flux technique was used to determine thermal-water flow based on measurements of increases in flux of chloride in stream water between an upstream and a downstream stream-gaging site separated by approximately 6 km and located east and northeast of the hot-water geothermal system beneath the Steamboat Hills.