Earth's surface heat flux

Davies, John Huw ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2656-0260 and Davies, David Rhodri ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7662-9468 2010. Earth's surface heat flux. Solid Earth 1 (1) , pp. 5-24. 10.5194/se-1-5-2010

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Abstract

We present a revised estimate of Earth's surface heat flux that is based upon a heat flow data-set with 38 347 measurements, which is 55% more than used in previous estimates. Our methodology, like others, accounts for hydrothermal circulation in young oceanic crust by utilising a half-space cooling approximation. For the rest of Earth's surface, we estimate the average heat flow for different geologic domains as defined by global digital geology maps; and then produce the global estimate by multiplying it by the total global area of that geologic domain. The averaging is done on a polygon set which results from an intersection of a 1 degree equal area grid with the original geology polygons; this minimises the adverse influence of clustering. These operations and estimates are derived accurately using methodologies from Geographical Information Science. We consider the virtually un-sampled Antarctica separately and also make a small correction for hot-spots in young oceanic lithosphere. A range of analyses is presented. These, combined with statistical estimates of the error, provide a measure of robustness. Our final preferred estimate is 47±2 TW, which is greater than previous estimates.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Advanced Research Computing @ Cardiff (ARCCA) Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QE Geology
Publisher:	European Geosciences Union
ISSN:	1869-9510
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 February 2019
Date of Acceptance:	10 February 2010
Last Modified:	02 May 2023 23:18
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/9397

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