摘要
We report herein the results of soil gas geochemistry studies, focused mainly on nonreactive and/or highly mobile gases such as He and H2, in five mining licenses at Tenerife and Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, during 2011-014. The primary objective was to sort the possible geothermal potential of these five mining licenses, thus reducing the uncertainty inherent to the selection of the areas with highest geothermal potential for future exploration works. By combining the overall information obtained by the statistical–graphical analysis of the soil He and H2 data, the spatial distribution of soil gas concentrations and the analysis of selected chemical ratios of the soil gas to evaluate the influence of deep-seating degassing, two of the five mining licenses (Garehagua and Abeque, both located in Tenerife Island) seemed to show the highest geothermal potential. These results will be useful for future implementation and development of geothermal energy in the Canaries, the only Spanish territory with potential high-enthalpy geothermal resources, thus the most promising area for high-enthalpy geothermal installations.