The national and local governments have carried out a series of explorations of geothermal resources in the Chapcha (Qia-bu-qia) region, Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province since 2011. It has been discovered that Gonghe Basin substrate is composed of the indosinian granite with a significantly high geothermal gradient up to 11.5℃/100 m. The temperature reached 150℃ at the level of 2200 m and was close to 200℃ at 3000 m and was estimated to be 260℃ at 4000 m, indicating that the basin has widely distributed hot dry rock in relatively shallow depth. Utilization of such hot dry rock resources will not only fill up the gap in China's new energy utilization, but also improve local residents'living conditions as well as develop local industry and agriculture.

hot dry rock  /  Gonghe Basin  /  engineering geothermal system  /  geothermal gradient