Electrical Resistivity Structure of the Sabalan Geothermal System Inferred from Magnetotelluric and TDEM Data

Geothermal energy is playing a large role as an alternative energy source for both electricity generation and space heating. Sabalan is a high temperature geothermal region in Ardabil province northwestern of Iran. In this study the conductivity structure of the top crust (depth lower than 2 kilometers) is examined using data from collected 212 magnetotelluric (MT) and time-domain electromagnetic (TDEM) soundings across the Sabalan volcano in 1998. The MT data collected between 1-8192 Hz is of useful quality and provides good control on the surface layers in majority of sites. The MT data were corrected for static shift effect using TDEM data. The TDEM data and MT data were jointly inverted to yield 1D and 2D models. In practice for geothermal investigation، measured MT data are never entirely 1D and diagonal elements of the impedance tensor are always non-zero. However، in many cases the Earth response is dominated by an overall 2D structure، permitting data analysis within these lower dimensions. In this study، in order to have the best possible interpretation we used two modes MT data in 2D inversion. Static shift correction and inversion approach accomplished by using WinGlink software. We choose three intersect profiles with 54 MT sites along with، to show resistivity distribution around Sabalan and try to predict the main intrusive magma chamber position as the heat source of the system. MT resistivity images confirmed the findings of previous surveys and the reported geological features in the Sabalan field. To have a better view about resistivity distribution، we combine the 2D models at the intersection points to obtain a 2. 5D view about the resistivity in the area. The resulting models reveal the extension of the high conductivity anomalies in the western and southwestern parts of the area that most probably is related to the main heat source of the geothermal system at shallow depths.