Agus Setyawan

FIELD AND MODELING STUDIES OF GEOTHERMAL SYSTEM

AT UNGARAN VOLCANO, CENTRAL JAVA, INDONESIA

(
)






Ungaran is a volcano located in the Central Java province, Indonesia, about 30 km
southwest of Semarang city. Ungaran is a Quatenary volcano, which consists of Young and Old
Ungaran volcanoes. Old Ungaran was constructed over 500,000 years ago and Young Ungaran was
formed until 300,000 years ago. Ungaran volcano has several areas with geothermal manifestations
such as Gedongsongo, Gonoharjo, Kendalisodo, Diwak and Kaliulo at the flank. Gedongsongo area
in the southern part of Ungaran volcano is the main geothermal field, which indicates fumaroles,
hot springs, hot acid pools and acid surface hydrothermal alteration zones.
The aims of this study are summarized as follows; (1) to understand the deep structure of
Ungaran volcano that correlates with the geothermal system, (2) to understand the fluid flow pattern
of the geothermal system and (3) to simulate the hydrothermal system and to estimate the
geothermal potential of Ungaran volcano.
The research was conducted in four stages. (1) Reviewing of previous studies such as
geological and geochemical information for supporting to construct the model of hydrothermal
system, (2) Reanalyzing the gravity data to examine the location of geothermal manifestations
correlated with the subsurface structure that is not interpreted by surface geologic data. (3)
Conducting geophysical surveys to construct the conceptual model of hydrothermal system, and (4)
Constructing the numerical model for the quantitative understanding of the geothermal system of
Ungaran volcano.
The outcomes of the research are as follows; (1)The positive gravity anomaly ranging from
20.5 mGals to 56 mGals was observed over the whole volcanic body. These high gravity anomalies
were mainly located over the northern part of the summit of Ungaran which correlates with old
Ungaran volcano. Various interpretation methods like horizontal gradient analysis, spectral analysis
and 2-D forward modeling were conducted for the gravity data. Horizontal gradient analysis
indicates that the existing geothermal manifestations at Ungaran are structurally controlled and are
located in Young Ungaran volcano. The structural setting of Ungaran volcano is characterized by
two major faults striking mainly in the east to west and northwest to southeast directions. Spectral
analysis method is used to determine the depths of gravity sources. The depths less than 1500 m are
located almost in the central part of the volcano, and correlate with Quaternary volcanic rocks,
which are composed of Old and Young Ungaran volcanic rocks. The outcrops of Tertiary volcanic
rocks in the southeastern part of the study area have an average depth of about 1800 m . Generally,
the regional structure of Ungaran volcano is divided into two layers with a density contrast of 250
kg/m
3
. The first layer is Quaternary Young Ungaran volcanic rocks with an average density of
2,390 130 kg/m
3
which consist of hornblende-augite-andesite lava flows from Gajahmungkur
volcanic rocks formation and the second layer is Quaternary old Ungaran volcanic rocks consisting
of augite-olivine basalt lava flows from the Kaligesik Formation with an average density of 2,640
110 kg/m
3
.
(2) A model of underground geothermal fluid flows was presented based on the several
geophysical surveys. The geophysical surveys consist of spontaneous-potential (SP), micro-
earthquake, infra-red imagery, and shallow ground temperature observations. SP data showed that
the main upflow zone of geothermal fluid is situated at the central part of the volcano around the
collapse wall and the lateral flow of geothermal fluid causes the geothermal activities at
Gedongsongo area. Two hundreds seventy micro-earthquake events including four earthquake
swarms were recorded during the 5-day seismic observation in 2005, and the hypocenters are
located in a shallower region than 500 m around the collapse wall. The total heat discharge rate
from Gedongsongo area was estimated as 1.25 MW by using the infra-red imagery and the hot
springs data. The shallow ground temperatures exhibit negative trend with altitude and geothermal
anomalies are only distributed around Gedongsongo fumarole area. The following conceptual
model of hydrothermal beneath Ungaran volcano was presented based on the geophysical,
geological and geochemical data. Deep geothermal fluids are supplied from below in the central
part of Ungaran volcano. The uprising geothermal fluids flow laterally in the shallow depth, part of
geothermal fluids is discharged at Gedonsongo fumarolic area and then most of the geothermal
fluids flow down in the deeper part of the southern flank of Ungaran volcano.
(3) The quantitative thermal model of hydrothermal system beneath Ungaran volcano is
presented using numerical simulation technique based on mass and energy balance equations with
the computer program HYDROTHERM 2.2. The background temperature distributions and mass
flux patterns were calculated for 150,000 years to obtain the quasi-steady state. The meteoric water
flow pattern demonstrates predominant downward flow, with a mass flux varying between 10
-8

g/cm
2
sec up to 10
-7
g/cm
2
sec. The thermal evolution was calculated for up to 30,000 years. The
deep geothermal fluids supplied from below in the central part of the volcano has an enthalpy of
1085 kJ/kg(250) and a mass flow of 230 kg/s to 250 kg/s. Upflow of hot water occurs beneath the
collapse wall area, and flows laterally, and then some portion of the water is discharged at
Gedongsongo area. In order to estimate the geothermal potential for conventional electric power
production, we employed the minimum reservoir temperature is 150
o
C and the performance of
reservoir was predicted for 30 years production. Depths of the reservoir are assumed to be 0.5 km, 1
km, 2 km and 3 km beneath mean sea level. As the results, the estimated geothermal potentials are
2.3 MW, 7.2 MW, 19.7 MW and 40.4 MW depending on the different thicknesses of the reservoir.
From the above results, Ungaran geothermal prospect has promising potential of geothermal energy.
Further investigations including deep sounding or drilling of deep wells are recommended to realize
the construction of geothermal power plants.