The Dixie Valley Geothermal Area is located near Fallon, Nevada. It lies along a range front fault that runs between the base of the Stillwater Range and the northwestern edge of Dixie Valley. The fault line and thermally active area are roughly 30 km long. It stretches from the Dixie Valley Geothermal power plant on the north side of the geothermal zone to the Dixie Hot Springs Geothermal Area on the south side.
The Dixie Meadows Geothermal Area also lies within this thermally active fault zone. There are a few other hot springs nearby - Seven Devils, Sou, and Hyder hot springs. There are also three blind systems within the valley - Dixie Comestock Mine, Pirouette Mountain, and Eleven Mile Canyon.
The Dixie Valley Geothermal Area is the hottest and largest known geothermal system in the Basin and Range Province. The geothermal production area is divided into two groups of production wells - Section 33 and Section 7. Injection wells are located between the two production zones. Each zone is about 1-3 km long and they are apparently not hydrologically linked at depth. A third zone that lies to the south of the production area, called Dixie Valley Power Partners - DVPP, has not been developed yet and also may not be hydrologically linked to the current production zones, but exhibits similar thermal characteristics.
Campbell, M. D. and C. C. Wielchowsky - 1977 - were one of the first to recognize the economic significance of the Dixie Valley as a potential wet geothermal field and published the results of their work to date (here).
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