Seismic Investigations of the Murci Geothermal Field (Southern Tuscany, Italy): Preliminary Results

The Monte Amiata region in the Southern Tuscany, Central Italy, describes a volcanic complex with great significance in terms of the regional fresh water supply, mining and geothermal power generation. Mainly for the latter purpose, the volcanic area of Mt Amiata has been the subject of extensive geological and geophysical research (e.g. Dini et al., 2010 and references therein). The insights from these studies have led to successful geothermal production in the Mt Amiata region since the early 1960s (e.g. Batini et al., 2003). Today's most important reservoirs in this area are the Bagnore and the Piancastagnaio fields which are both operated by the company Enel Green Power. The work presented here deals with the Murci area, another potential reservoir located about 10 km southwest of the Mt Amiata volcanic complex. Therefore, in order to get a more detailed understanding of this area, five reflection seismic profiles were carried out. We have performed on three of them a preliminary depth-migrated images, through Kirchhoff prestack depth migration (KPSDM). The vital point of depth migration algorithms is the accuracy of the velocity model that is used for the backpropagation of the seismic data. Therefore, we derived a suitable 1D starting model from nearby well logs and VSP measurements. In order to remove the large topography effects along the profiles, we then utilized first-arrival tomography for each seismic line. For the following processing we incorporated these 2D tomographic results into our starting model which compensates for static effects and improves the resolution in the near-surface area. The velocity models were then used in the application of KPSDM to the seismic data for each profile, respectively. The resulting preliminary images show a zone of high seismic reflectivity, known as the 'K-horizon' (e.g. Brogi, 2008), and could improve its geological interpretation. These promising results encourage us to proceed with deeper migration velocity analysis which will reveal more details about the structures of the Murci area. Batini, F. et al., 2003: Geological features of Larderello-Travale and Mt. Amiata geothermal areas (southern Tuscany, Italy), Episodes, 26, 239-244. Brogi, A., 2008. The structure of the Monte Amiata volcano-geothermal area (Northern Apennines, Italy): Neogene-Quaternary compression versus extension, Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) (2008) 97:677-703 Dini, I. et al., 2010. Geological Evaluation of the Base of the Mt. Amiata Volcanic Complex (Tuscany, Italy), Procedings World Geothermal Congress 2010, Bali, Indonesia, April 2010.