High Temperature Metamorphism In The Conductive Boundary Layer Of An Intrusion Of Rhyolite Magma In The Krafla Geothermal System, Iceland

A rhyolite magma body within the Krafla geothermal system- encountered at a depth of 2.1 km during drilling of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project's IDDP-1 borehole - is producing high temperature metamorphism within adjacent country rocks. Cuttings recovered during drilling within a few meters of the intrusive contact are undergoing recrystallization into granoblastic, pyroxene hornfelses. In mafic rocks, clinopyroxene-orthopyroxene-plagioclase-magnetite-ilmenite assemblages record temperatures in the range of 800-950°C. Silicic lithologies - mainly older felsitic intrusions -contain pockets of rhyolite melt, quenched to glass during drilling, amongst alkali feldspar, plagioclase, quartz, clinopyroxene, and magnetite. Curiously, no lower grade metamorphic assemblages have been identified in the drill cuttings, and country rocks at distances beyond 30 m of the contact are essentially unaltered. These findings suggest that the intruding rhyolite magma body has created a thin conductive boundary layer above it, but that a contact metamorphic aureole has not as yet developed beyond this. The heat flow across the boundary layer is calculated to be a minimum of 23 W m-2. This flux is capable of supplying steam to a geothermal power plant that can produce approximately 40 MW of electrical generation from a single well that has a measured well-head temperature of up to 415°C.