The Interplay of Non-static Permeability and Fluid Flow as a Possible Pre-requisite for Supercritical Geothermal Resources

Unconventional geothermal resources at supercritical conditions have been inferred to occur beneath high-enthalpy systems in active magmatic environments, and bear the potential to increase electricity production from a geothermal well by an order of magnitude. The high specific enthalpies of these fluids cannot be explained by simple convection models and a hydrologic divide between two distinct flow regimes may be required. In numerical simulations of porphyry-copper systems, such a hydrologic divide self-organized from an interplay of non-static permeability and fluid flow. The physical principles of these fossil magmatic-hydrothermal systems are closely related to supercritical geothermal systems.