Geothermal exploration using imaging spectrometer data over Fish Lake Valley, Nevada

The discovery of additional geothermal resources in Fish Lake Valley may provide the necessary added incentive to build costly transmission lines to this remote location. We used remote sensing data to delineate four new targets for future geothermal exploration in northern Fish Lake Valley. Two new areas of sinter and travertine deposits were identified northwest of the playa, likely deposited around fault-controlled hot springs during the Pleistocene when the water table was higher. Previously undocumented Miocene crystalline travertine was identified within the Emigrant Hills. Argillic alteration was mapped within ranges, where thermal fluids were likely discharged from faults to alter rhyolite tuff. Here we explain our data processing techniques which include a novel decorrelation stretch designed for geothermal prospecting, and discuss how remote sensing results guided our interpretation of the region's geothermal systems.