A Study Of The Characteristics And Genesis Of The Hot Springs And Salt Springs In The Lanping Area Of Yunnan

With the rapid development of society, people pay more and more attention to geothermal energy which is an enormous and important heat resource, and also a kind of new clean energy. The hot spring is the sign of geothermal energy and most widely distributes on the earth. According to the geothermal features it can bring a lot of movement, water chemistry, and other information of the deep groundwater. Researches on the characteristics and formation of hot springs are of very important significance for riching the geothermal science and for promoting the development and utilization of geothermal resources. Potash resources are very scarce in China. By studying the salt springs and predicting the prospect for potassium resources to a certain degree, moreover, this paper give more valuable suggestions for the exploitation and utilization of the potash resources.There are many hot springs and salt springs in Yunnan Province. This paper mainly involves respectively three hot springs and three salt springs, namely Lajing hot spring, Xinhe hot spring, Madeng hot spring, Lajing salt spring, Wenjing salt spring and Shangjing salt spring. The temperature of the three hot springs ranges from 42.1℃ to 46.1℃, pH value from 6.87 to 6.92, and TDS from 0.894 g/L to 3.98 g/L. The flow of hot springs is from 0.014L/s to 1L/s. Three salt springs are cold springs, pH value ranges from 6.39 to 7.01, and TDS ranges 6.81 g/L to 325 g/L.The maximum TDS of the Lajing salt spring is as high as 325 g/L. The hot springs are of SO₄-Na?Ca type, HCO₃-Na type and SO₄?Cl-Na?Ca type with the predominated cations of Na, K, Ca and Mg and the anions of SO₄, HCO₃ and Cl by using the software of AquaChem. The salt springs are all of Cl-Na type with the predominated cations of Na, K, Ca and the anions of SO₄ and Cl by using the software of AquaChem. The contents of lithium, strontium, H₂SiO₃ of the three hot springs have reached the water naming standards. The content of F in hot springs exceeds the standard of drinking mineral water, and cannot be used for drinking. Three salt springs also contain a variety of trace components, and the contents of strontium and bromine reach the water naming standards.Stable hydrogen and oxygen Isotopes of the three hot springs indicate that the hot water is of meteoric origin. The recharge elevation of the hot water are estimated as 3313 m, 4076 m, 3718 m; the age of the hot water, 240 years, 15 years, 140 years; the temperature of the geothermal reservoir, 92.7℃, 126.2℃, 77.2℃; the circulation depth of the hot water, 2314.2 m, 3274.1 m, 1874.2 m, and the mixture ratio of cold water, 0.828, 0, 0.804 by using the silicon-enthalpy equation method and silicon-enthalpy graphic method.By examing the formation of the hot springs, we leand that the three hot springs are deep cicrular springs, besides, the Madegn hot spring is also an up-flowing spring. This lays the groundwork for geothermal resources development in the future.Stable hydrogen and oxygen Isotopes of the three salt springs indicate that the hot water is of meteoric origin. Through the analysis of ratios of rNa/rCl, Br×10³/Cl, I×10³/Cl, K×10³/Cl, Br/I and K/Br, we learn that the three salt springs are soluble salt brines, and also shallow circular springs. This lays the groundwork for looking for and predicting the potash resources in the future.