Groundwater more saline than seawater has been discovered in the tsunami breccia of the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. One hypothesis for the origin of this brine is that it may be a liquid residual following steam separation in a hydrothermal system that evolved following the impact. Initial scoping calculations have demonstrated that it is feasible such a residual brine could have remained in the crater for the 35 million years since impact. Numerical simulations have been conducted using the code HYDROTHERM to test whether or not conditions were suitable in the millennia following the impact for the development of a steam phase in the hydrothermal system. Hydraulic and thermal parameters were estimated for the bedrock underlying [...]
