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Lightning Dock Geothermal Field Data Package, Hidalgo County, New Mexico

Published by Zanskar Geothermal | Department of Energy | Catalog Last Checked: September 10, 2026 at 05:53 PM | Dataset Last Updated: September 09, 2026 at 05:14 PM
This submission is a curated geoscience, well and plant-operations data package for the Lightning Dock geothermal field in the Animas Valley, Hidalgo County, south-western New Mexico, a liquid-dominated system produced for binary (ORC) power generation. It covers well-by-well data for 41 wells, including logs, drilling and completion records, flow tests, pressure-temperature surveys, production and injection time series, and directional survey compilations; inter-well tracer test campaigns from 2012 through 2019; geophysics comprising magnetotellurics, aeromagnetics, gravity and LiDAR; the daily plant operations record covering January 2014 to August 2026; shallow groundwater monitoring; GIS layers with a QGIS project that loads them; and fluid and gas geochemistry. Read the included data package guide first: it describes each dataset, the naming conventions the files follow, and the units. Two prerequisites are worth noting. The daily operations table carries one row per source spreadsheet rather than one row per day, so it should be read alongside its accompanying column-description PDF before analysis. The GIS project requires QGIS and uses paths relative to its own folder, so that dataset should be kept intact rather than having individual layers moved. Well identifiers are consistent throughout, so logs, tests, operations columns and GIS well layers can be joined on the well name.

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Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel public
bureauCode 
[
  "019:20"
]
contactPoint 
{
  "fn": "Ghoulem Ifrene",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:ghoulem@zanskar.us"
}
dataQuality 
true
description This submission is a curated geoscience, well and plant-operations data package for the Lightning Dock geothermal field in the Animas Valley, Hidalgo County, south-western New Mexico, a liquid-dominated system produced for binary (ORC) power generation. It covers well-by-well data for 41 wells, including logs, drilling and completion records, flow tests, pressure-temperature surveys, production and injection time series, and directional survey compilations; inter-well tracer test campaigns from 2012 through 2019; geophysics comprising magnetotellurics, aeromagnetics, gravity and LiDAR; the daily plant operations record covering January 2014 to August 2026; shallow groundwater monitoring; GIS layers with a QGIS project that loads them; and fluid and gas geochemistry. Read the included data package guide first: it describes each dataset, the naming conventions the files follow, and the units. Two prerequisites are worth noting. The daily operations table carries one row per source spreadsheet rather than one row per day, so it should be read alongside its accompanying column-description PDF before analysis. The GIS project requires QGIS and uses paths relative to its own folder, so that dataset should be kept intact rather than having individual layers moved. Well identifiers are consistent throughout, so logs, tests, operations columns and GIS well layers can be joined on the well name.
distribution 
[
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "00_ACRONYMS.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/00_ACRONYMS.pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "description": "Acronyms and filename used across the package, with their expansions."
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "00_DATA_PACKAGE_GUIDE.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/00_DATA_PACKAGE_GUIDE.pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "description": "Reader's guide to the package: how it is organized, what each section holds, the naming conventions, and the units and conventions the tables follow. Read this first."
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "00_WELL_LOG_TYPES.pdf",
    "format": "pdf",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/00_WELL_LOG_TYPES.pdf",
    "mediaType": "application/pdf",
    "description": "Which log types exist for which wells, and the curve mnemonics found in the LAS files."
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "01_WELLS.zip",
    "format": "zip",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/01_WELLS.zip",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "Well-by-well data for 41 wells at Lightning Dock: wireline and mud logs, drilling and completion records, flow and injection tests, pressure-temperature-spinner surveys, and production and injection time series, filed one folder per well and subdivided by data type. Six field-wide tables sit alongside them: well trajectories and collar coordinates (2,777 survey stations, 29 wells), downhole logger pressure and temperature (2,224,582 readings, 12 wells, 2014-2021), pressure-temperature-spinner profiles against depth (1,759,715 readings, 19 wells, 1984-2025), manual wellhead pressure rounds (16,739 readings), and catalogues of every wireline log (515) and every well test (90) giving the file each one lives in. Depths in feet, temperatures in Fahrenheit, pressures in psi. "
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "02_TRACER_TEST_CAMPAIGNS.zip",
    "format": "zip",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/02_TRACER_TEST_CAMPAIGNS.zip",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "Inter-well tracer testing at Lightning Dock across the 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2019 campaigns, with the laboratory workbooks and reports behind them. Three tables: 4,987 tracer concentration results (long format, one row per sample per compound, ten compounds including naphthalene sulfonates, disulfonates and trisulfonates, caesium-133 and butyramide), the 11 injection records giving which tracer entered which well and when, and 8,668 production and injection flow readings spanning the test periods. Concentrations in µg/L. Results below the laboratory detection limit carry that limit in the value column with a censored flag set, and must not be read as zeros -- 36% of results are censored."
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "03_GEOPHYSICS.zip",
    "format": "zip",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/03_GEOPHYSICS.zip",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "Field-scale geophysics for Lightning Dock in five parts. Magnetotellurics: 135 EDI station files from the 2010 and 2014 surveys, Quantec 3D and Wannamaker inversion models, depth slices with corner-point georeferencing, and west-east resistivity sections. Aeromagnetics: the 2001 Bowers survey raw flight data and the 2014 IGL processed and contoured products. Gravity: 495 stations from the 2020 Magee survey with simple and complete Bouguer reductions. Seismic: a downhole string-shot recording made in well 17-7 onto temporary surface receivers. LiDAR: a bare-earth digital elevation model of the field. "
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "04_PRODUCTION_INJECTION_GENERATION.zip",
    "format": "zip",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/04_PRODUCTION_INJECTION_GENERATION.zip",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "The daily operations record of the Lightning Dock binary (ORC) power plant, 27 January 2014 to 3 August 2026: 6,850 rows by 70 columns covering plant-level power, brine supply and exit temperature, loop flow and parasitic load, plus per-well flow, temperature, pressure and running hours for 14 wells. A PDF beside the table describes every column. The table carries one row per source daily report rather than one row per calendar day, so read it with that PDF before analysis. An empty cell means a value was not reported, not zero. Temperatures in Fahrenheit, flow in US gallons per minute, power in kW."
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "05_GROUNDWATER_MONITORING.zip",
    "format": "zip",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/05_GROUNDWATER_MONITORING.zip",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "Shallow groundwater monitoring around the Lightning Dock wellfield. Five tables: 46,187 manual depth-to-water readings across 25 wells from November 2013 to February 2022; 397,667 downhole logger pressure and temperature readings at roughly five-minute spacing, 2018-2022; monthly precipitation as water equivalent, 2008-2019; manual bubble-tube pressure reads; and a station table with coordinates and elevations. Monitoring-well field logs and the monitoring program document are included. Depths to water in feet below the measuring point. "
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "06_GIS.zip",
    "format": "zip",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/06_GIS.zip",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "Vector GIS layers for Lightning Dock, organized by themes -- geology and structure, geophysics, water chemistry, and wells -- together with a QGIS project that loads them and a GeoPackage holding a parallel set plus a statewide New Mexico geology polygon layer. 30 shapefile layers, each complete with its .shp, .shx, .dbf and .prj, so every layer arrives with its coordinate system declared. Includes mapped and inferred faults, the Animas Valley fault trace, Muir Caldera ring fractures, aeromagnetic contours and flight lines, gravity stations and Bouguer contours, resistivity station lines, a shallow temperature anomaly, six interpolated water-chemistry surfaces, and production, injection and temperature-gradient well locations. NAD83 / UTM zone 12N (EPSG:26912), except the USGS Quaternary faults layer in geographic degrees. The QGIS project uses paths relative to its own folder, so keep the folder intact rather than moving individual layers."
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "07_GEOCHEMISTRY.zip",
    "format": "zip",
    "accessURL": "https://gdr.openei.org/files/1856/07_GEOCHEMISTRY.zip",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "Fluid and gas chemistry for Lightning Dock. Three tables: 14,108 water analysis results in long format, one row per analyte per sample, covering 722 samples at 45 sites and 289 analytes from 1993 to 2021; 87 gas analysis results from three attributable samples; and 199 published regional analyses compiled from the literature, kept separate from project sampling and carrying NAD27 coordinates as originally published. Two ThermoChem laboratory reports and a 2025 gas analysis workbook are included. Units are as reported, with a unit column on every row -- mixed mg/kg, mg/L, µg/L, ppm and per-mil. Results below the detection limit carry that limit with a censored flag and must not be read as zeros. "
  }
]
identifier https://data.openei.org/submissions/8755
issued 2026-08-19T06:00:00Z
keyword 
[
  "Binary System",
  "Bouguer",
  "Energy",
  "GIS",
  "Geochemistry",
  "Geology",
  "Geophysics",
  "Geothermal",
  "Groundwater",
  "LiDAR",
  "Lightning Dock",
  "Magnetotelluric",
  "Mud Logs",
  "ORC",
  "Power Generation",
  "Production data",
  "Quaternary fault",
  "Tracer Test",
  "Well Logs",
  "aeromagnetics",
  "downhole temperature",
  "gravity survey",
  "inversion models",
  "temperature"
]
landingPage https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1856
license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
modified 2026-09-09T17:14:49Z
programCode 
[
  "019:006"
]
projectLead Mike Weathers
projectNumber EE0011649
projectTitle GEOGYM: A MULTI-SITE BENCHMARK DATASET TO DE-RISK AND OPTIMIZE GEOTHERMAL EXPLORATION
publisher 
{
  "name": "Zanskar Geothermal",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
spatial 
"{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-109.0316667,31.94833333],[-108.6316667,31.94833333],[-108.6316667,32.34833333],[-109.0316667,32.34833333],[-109.0316667,31.94833333]]]}"
title Lightning Dock Geothermal Field Data Package, Hidalgo County, New Mexico

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