12.11.2014|Essen: This evening the Geothermal Association awards this year's "Prize for the Promotion of Young Academics" to Egbert Jolie of the International Centre for Geothermal Research ICGR at GFZ. This prize is awarded once a year to early career researchers, at the annual symposium of the Association, to honor outstanding scientific achievements in the field of geothermal research.

In his dissertation project"Detection and characterization of permeable fault zones by surface methods in the Basin-and-Range Province, USA“, Egbert Jolie developed a new approach to investigate fault controlled geothermal systems by applying quantitative structural geological methods in combination with surface gas-flow measurements. Assuming that faults that transport fluids in bedrocks are liberating gas, and thereby show a measurable surface-signature, he combined surface gas-measurements and fault-stress data to identify high-gas-flow signatures. At the same time the fault planes exhibit stretch-shearing tendencies which probably dominate the flow of thermal water in geothermal systems.
The work of Egbert Jolie adds to an improved and thereby more cost effective exploration in the frame of early stage exploration of geothermal reservoirs. Furthermore, this project answers key questions in the field of fault controlled fluid-flow in geothermal systems.

This graduate thesis project was carried out in the frame of a research project of the U.S. Department of Energy and Ormat Industries, and was supervised by Prof. Inga Moeck of GFZ section "Reservoir Technologies". The investigated geothermal field is located in the northeast of reno, Nevada, and thus in the Basin-and-Range Province.