Abstract
It has been known for a long time that the temperature of the Earth rises with depth below ground, heat flow from subterranean hot regions manifesting itself in this geothermal temperature gradient. It is enhanced by the continued generation of heat due to radioactive decay of uranium, thorium and potassium within the crust. But the natural heat flux driven by such temperature gradients is very low, the world average being around 50 mW/m2. This is three orders of magnitude lower than the mean solar input to northern Europe in winter; therefore such heat flows are much too small to be exploited directly. Nevertheless, over millions of years, they accumulate heat stores which can sometimes be mined.
‘Now these things are so.’
Herodotus, 5th Century bc (‘Father of History’)
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© 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd
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Bowen, R. (1989). Introduction. In: Geothermal Resources. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1103-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1103-1_1
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