Site is Loading, Please wait...

Tag: Heat flow

Earth Internal Heat Flow

Earth’s internal heat flow from the core, mantle and crust to the surface through conduction, convection, and advection.




Earth’s internal heat flow and its sources and transfer modes. Estimates of the total heat flow from Earth’s interior to the surface range from 43 to 49 terawatts (TW), with a commonly cited value of ~46 TW. Earth’s heat originates from a combination of radiogenic heat produced by radioactive decay (estimated 15–41 TW) and primordial heat left from planetary formation and core crystallisation (estimated 12–30 TW). Apart from conduction through the solid inner core, the Earth’s heat loss drives convection in the outer core as well as mantle convection, enabling solid-state flow in the mantle, which includes plate tectonics at the surface. Through the crust, heat transfers via conduction and even advection (through magma channels in, e.g., volcanoes).

  • Dark and light background versions
  • Transparent background
  • Vector graphic version
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white
Download

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Heat flow map

Global maps of the solid Earth’s surface heat flow based on Davies (2013).

Global maps of the solid Earth’s surface heat flow based on Davies (2013). Relying on over 38,000 measurements, the map is a combination of three components. First, in regions of young ocean crust (<67.7 Ma), the model estimate uses a half-space conduction model based on the age of the oceanic crust, since it is well known that raw data measurements are frequently influenced by significant hydrothermal circulation. Second, in other regions of data coverage, the estimate is based on data measurements. At the map resolution, these two categories (young ocean & data covered) cover 65% of Earth’s surface. Third, for all other regions the estimate is based on the assumption that there is a correlation between heat flow and geology. This assumption is assessed and the correlation is found to provide a minor improvement over assuming that heat flow would be represented by the global average.

The Scientific colour map ‘lipari‘ is used to represent data accurately and to all readers.

  • Creator: Fabio Crameri
  • Original version: 25.10.2021
  • This version: 10.05.2023
  • License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
  • Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri based on Davies (2013) is available via the open-access s-ink.org repository.
  • Related reference: Davies, J. H. (2013), Global map of solid Earth surface heat flow, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 14, 4608– 4622, doi:10.1002/ggge.20271.
  • Alternative map projections
  • Alternative colour map versions
  • Transparent background
  • Light & dark background versions
  • Perceptually uniform
  • Colour-vision deficiency friendly
  • Readable in black&white
Download

Faulty or missing link? – Please report them via a reply below!

Exit mobile version
%%footer%%