Stable isotopes of hydrothermal minerals as tracers for geothermal fluids in Iceland

•Isotopes as tracers for thermal waters.•Ice-age geothermal fluids.•Hydrogeological modeling.•Krafla and Reykjanes geothermal systems.•Geochemical processes controlled by water-rock interactions.

The Reykjanes and Krafla geothermal systems, located within the active rift zone of Iceland, are both potential venues for exploitation of deep supercritical fluids by the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP). An essential aspect of properly characterizing geochemical and hydrologic processes occurring at supercritical depths is establishing the source, composition and evolution of geothermal fluids. Traditionally, hydrogen isotopes of thermal fluids are used to determine their source. We show that for these, and likely many other Icelandic geothermal systems, analyzing fluid dD is not sufficient alone. Rather, d18O and dD of hydrothermal minerals in conjunction with geochemical characteristics of extant geothermal fluids are necessary to characterize the source and geologic evolution of geothermal reservoir fluids. Here we review results from existing drill holes in the Reykjanes and Krafla geothermal systems to depths of =3 km, and explore the utility of using stable isotopes in alteration minerals such as epidote to assess the hydrogeology of extinct volcano-hydrothermal systems by presenting new data from the Geitafell fossil hydrothermal system in southeast Iceland.