Near-surface imaging of a hydrogeothermal system at Mount Princeton, Colorado using 3D seismic, self-potential, and dc resistivity data

The Upper Arkansas Valley in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado is the northernmost extensional basin of the Rio Grande Rift (Figure 1). The valley is a half graben bordered to the east and west by the Mosquito and Sawatch ranges, respectively. The Sawatch Range is home to the Collegiate Peaks, which include some of the highest summits in the Rocky Mountains. Some Collegiate Peaks over 4250 m (14,000 ft) from north to south include Mount Harvard, Mount Yale, Mount Princeton, and Mount Antero. The Sawatch range-front normal fault strikes north-northwest along the eastern margin of the Collegiate Peaks and is characterized by a right-lateral offset between the Mount Princeton batholith and Mount Antero. This offset in basin-bounding faults is accommodated by a northeast-southwest dextral strike-slip transfer fault (Richards et al., 2010) and coincides with an area of hydrogeothermal activity and Mount Princeton Hot Springs. This transfer fault is here termed the Chalk Creek fault due to it's alignment with the Chalk Creek valley. A 250-m high erosional scarp, called the Chalk Cliffs, lies along the northern boundary of this valley. The cliffs are geothermally altered quartz monzonite and not chalk. These cliffs coincide with the Chalk Creek fault, whose intersection with the Sawatch range-front normal fault results in a primary pathway for upwelling geothermal waters.