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Appendix C: Explanation for ‘Geothermal Fluids’ Reported in Kotzebue Possible Explanation for ‘Geothermal Fluids’ Beneath Kotzebue Gwen Holdmann and Kenji Yoshikawa, Alaska Center for Energy and Power, University of Alaska This paper addresses the long-standing oral tradition in Kotzebue which alleges that geothermal fluid was once encountered at approximately 300 feet depth beneath the city of Kotzebue. The fluid was reportedly encountered during drilling for potable water for a hospital which was built between 1954 and 1958. The water was apparently very brackish, and the hole was sealed shortly after being drilled. Since that time, this story of a geothermal resource which was supposedly located beneath the town has been revisited on numerous occasions, and regional geothermal resource evaluations have attempted to verify or refute the existence of this resource. None of these reports were able to access any tangible evidence such as well logs or other data relating to the hospital project, so no definitive conclusions were ever reached. We have obtained data from a report (Ground Water in the Permafrost Regions of Alaska, John R. Williams, 1970) which sites a number of wells drilled on the spit where Kotzebue is located between 1952 and 1961. These holes were reportedly drilled for the purpose of locating a potable waters supply within the community, and ranged in depths from 19 to 325 feet. Examples include a well drilled at the FAA station (southern end of the peninsula) to a total depth of 95 feet which hit unfrozen sand and silt at a depth of 67 to 85 feet, and gravel containing brine from 83 to 85 feet. Two other shallow test holes were drilled beneath shallow lakes on the spit by the U.S. Public Health Service. The wells drilled by the U.S. Public Health Service are of interest because this is the agency which has been attributed to drilling the ‘geothermal’ well in town. However these are the only two holes in the immediate vicinity of Kotzebue drilled by the Health Service which were cited in the report. The well of most significant interest is the deepest one, drilled to a total depth of 325 feet. It is not clear whether this well corresponds to the one drilled at the hospital, but it was located in the main town location, in close proximity to several additional shallower holes. The 325 foot well was drilled as a USGS test well, and the diagrammatic cross section is included on the attached page. We have attempted to locate the well on an aerial image of Kotzebue taken in 1989 that includes the old hospital building, which has since been demolished. It was not possible to exactly pinpoint the well on this more modern aerial, but any error is likely to be no more than a couple hundred feet. While the 325 ft well does not exactly overlap with the location of the old hospital (see Figure 1), it is in extremely close proximity which makes it a valuable data point which should provide some indication of an elevated thermal gradient if a geothermal resource was encountered at a distance of less than a city block. Even a very isolated, moderate temperature resource would reach equilibrium with the surrounding ground and its signature should be visible in nearby well logs. The cross section of the USGS well is interesting for several reasons. The base of permafrost was reached at 238 feet. However, a section of unfrozen brackish waters was accessed at a depth of 79-86 feet, isolated above and below by frozen blue silty clay. 29PDF Image | US Department of Energy Tribal Energy Program
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