In the western United States, Nevada is a wilderness treasure. My sons grew up in Nevada camping and exploring. Recently, they located an abandoned mine not far from Rachel, Nevada, and Area 51. When they arrived at the camp site they were surprised because a 56-degree breeze was blowing across where they set up camp from a tunnel entrance. The temperature in the sun was 108. They walked three quarters of a mile into an abandoned mine and stopped when they found a vertical shaft about 150 feet straight down. They could see and hear moving water. Aiming a light down the shaft, they could see light reflecting off water at the bottom. Based on the sound, the water was moving rapidly. The air temperature in the tunnel was so cold they retreated back into the sun. The moving water was probably a tributary or perhaps the main channel of the Great Basin Aquifer.
Our state is filled with geothermal hot springs. The link below contains a map showing the location of Nevada’s hot springs. There are currently 13 geothermal energy plants in Nevada. The geothermal energy potential of our State is obvious. The extensive number of geothermal hot springs indicates we are on top of volcanic activity, like Yellowstone National Park and the Cascadia chain, which is part of the volcanic Ring Of Fire surrounding the Pacific Ocean. It takes super heated magma (lava) to create a hot spring. One look at this map makes me wonder why we never hear about geothermal energy to power our state. Is Nevada Energy able to maintain an energy monopoly like they blocked solar for two years?
This website was created by the National Bureau of Mines and updated by the University of Nevada, Reno.
https://web2.nbmg.unr.edu/NevadaGeothermal/
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