Description
The annual short course in El Salvador held in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals was held in El Salvador 15-21 March. This time the short course was devoted to surface exploration for geothermal resources and was primarily targeted towards practicing geoscientists in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The first day of the course, Sunday March 15, was devoted to an overview of geothermal geoscientific exploration with short presentations given about the status of exploration in the home countries of participants. The participants were then split into three groups focusing on different aspects of geothermal exploration: geology, chemistry of thermal fluids, and geophysics. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to theoretical lectures and field work near Ahuachapan, while Thursday and Friday were reserved for the processing and interpretation of data from a single geothermal field within the three groups. On the final day of the course, Saturday March 21, the participants shared their interpretations of the data and strived to reach consensus on a conceptual model for the geothermal field under study.
The short course was attended by 41 participants from 13 countries all over the Americas and instructors came from Iceland and El Salvador.