Research uncovers additional facts about Pagosa’s geothermal water

Staff Writer

SUN photo/Ed Fincher
Stephen Cuttler, a graduate student at Colorado School of Mines, as part of his summer internship with Pagosa Verde, LLC, has been busy all week using geological survey techniques to help the town of Pagosa Springs find leaks in its geothermal heating utility. He was joined in his efforts by fellow CSM grad student Joyce Hoopes. In May, Cuttler and Hoopes helped supervise 36 students from CSM, as well as 20 students from the Imperial College of London, during a two-week field camp in which a variety of scientific methods were used to map Pagosa Country’s underground geothermal features.[/caption]

The geothermal resource under Pagosa Springs continues to be the subject of research and discussion from a number of different angles this summer, starting with the 2013 joint field camp for the Colorado School of Mines and the Imperial College of London, and continuing next week with the Pagosa Verde Symposium.

The 274-page report from the 2013 field camp, titled “Geophysical Investigation of the Pagosa Springs Geothermal System,” was released on June 7 when the students involved in the research made a presentation at the school’s main campus in Golden.

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