As a significant part of geothermal resources, hot dry rock (HDR) resources have attracted increasing attention due to their clean, stable, reproducible characteristics and huge potential of high temperature geothermal power generation. China started research on HDR resources since the 1990s, and has successfully explored and predicted quite a few HDR resources deposits. However, until now, we have not classified HDR resources and studied the genetic mechanisms of their occurrence, which hinders the exploration and precise potential estimation of HDR resources in China. Based on the geological indicators of the occurrence of HDR resources and genetic analysis of them in the world and the crustal structure in China, this paper divides the HDR resources into four types, i.e. the high radioactive heat production type, the sedimentary basin type, the modern volcano type and the intraplate active tectonic zone type. The genetic mechanisms of different types of HDR resources are analyzed and compared, and the prospect regions of HDR resources are proposed, which may provide references for precise potential estimation of the HDR resources in China.

HDR resources  /  geological indicator  /  heat source  /  radioactive heat generation  /  genetic mechanism