Interpretation of horizontal gradient of the gravity data indicated that the area is characterized by

the existence of high gradient anomalies associated with existing geothermal fields and
manifestations. Horizontal gradient analysis also enabled tracing several faults that are mainly
striking in the S-N, NW-SE, and NE-SW directions. Euler deconvolution method has been applied to
the gravity data and provided fast information about both the depth and trends of the shallower
subsurface structures in the area

Even though the gravity data is suitable for the interpretation of re-gional structures, the sparse
distribution of the gravity stations in most parts of the surveyed area does not tolerate more
detailed inter-pretations. In particular, it is not possible to detect and interpret hy-drothermal
alterations associated with hot water circulation near known springs

The Bouguer anomaly contains contributions from a regional trend resulting from the presence of
deep and large structures. The effects of these structures in the gravity field appear as large
wavelengths anom-alies, which mask the effect of smaller and more superficial ones. In order to
highlight the gravity anomalies associated with the sources of interest for this work, a regional–
residual separation of the Bouguer anomaly was performed. There are several methods to do so,
from the more empirical to the more analytical ones (see e.g., Telford et al., 1990).

In the current study the relatively short E –W length of the sur-vey, in comparison with the size of
the local anomalies, makes it difficult to determine the long wavelength anomalies. Several methods
of calcu-lating the regional field were tested, like second and higher polynomial fitting and upward
continuation, and they resulted in an unwanted at-tenuation of the anomalies of interest. Thus, the
simple method of least s qu are a dj us tm en t o f a first degree polynomial surface to the observed
gravity field was chosen, so that the regional trend would not absorb the local gravity anomalies. The
residual component was cal-culated by subtracting the regional gravity field from the complete
Bouguer field.

The v er ti cal d e riv at ive can be se en as the v ariati on of the gravity anomal y fiel d w hen a n
upwar d cont inuat ion is carr ie d o ut . It has t he effec t o f enhan c ing th e s ho rt er wave le ngt h
ano m ali es a ssoci ate d to sh al-lo w s t ruct ur es a nd at te nuati ng the h igh er wav el eng th one s
( Nabig hian , 1984). Ev en th ough it s visual interpretatio n i s less obvious than the o ne take n f ro
m hor izo ntal d eri vat iv es, the ve rt ic al der iva tiv e can b e u seful as i t emphasiz es disc ont inuit
ie s in t he ano malyfield, al low ing for t he ho r-izo ntal l ocat ion of t he ce nte rs of t he anomalo u
s m asse s (Saad, 2006 ). I n theverticalderivativemap (Fig. 7 ) t he Chaves and Vi la R eal basi ns, whe
re lo w-e nt halpy ge oth er malfiel ds are k now n t o e x ist, ar e ve ry wel l marke d as i nte nse d e
riv ati ve mini mums.

The horizontal and vertical derivatives show that most of the anomalies observed are associated
with major faults and contact zones of different lithologies. The main tectonic structure, the PRVf
zone, has a strong expression in the NE –SW dominant lineament ori-entation, observed in the
residual anomaly map, and especially in the directional derivatives maps. High frequency negative
anomalies tes-tify, in some cases, the highly fractured granitic outcrop and surface manifestations of
geothermal waters.