Questions tagged [geothermal-heat]
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Could the Earth's core lose its heat?
Will all the drilling and digging to use the Earth's natural heat as geothermal energy affect the Earth's core, causing it to cool down?
If so, would it result in an ice age? If not, how does the ...
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Why is geothermal heat insignificant to surface temperature?
I believe the temperature gradient underground is as high as 30°C per kilometer of depth. Thus, it is very warm only 1 kilometer below the Earth's surface. Yet, it is commonly stated that geothermal ...
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Why don't scientists use fire entry suits to study volcanoes?
It seems like the only personal protective equipment
(PPE) that volcanologists use are aluminized suits that don't provide any protection from direct contact with lava, making an unexpected splash ...
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Do fossil fuels insulate the crust from the Earth's interior?
I was doing a project for my English class, and I came upon the article Energy conservation in the earth's crust and climate change. I can't view the full text of the article, but the abstract piqued ...
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Can the overuse of geothermal energy become an environmental concern? [duplicate]
At what power output would we be using so much geothermal energy that we cool the core enough to endanger the Earth's magnetic field and have to stop using it? Is this a conceivable concern for a ...
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How much heat is transported from the interior to the surface in the form of hydration enthalpy?
Heat is transferred from the interior to the surface through several methods. One is simply the conduction of sensible heat through the crust - I would guess this accounts for most of it. But some is ...
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Does volcanic activity fluctuate?
According to this person's surmises, volcanic activity appers to be increasing.
However, according to this report, volcanic activity is probably not increasing.
My question is:
Does Volcanic activity ...
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Why is the inside of the Earth so hot?
I have heard that the Earth is made up of four layers, being the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. I have also heard that the Earth's temperature increases as you move from the ...
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Geothermal instead of fossil and nuclear?
Why aren't we taking advantage of geothermal heating to produce electricity around the world, instead of burning fossil fuels and using nuclear?
Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper than building new power ...
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How does geothermal heating work?
I have heard that geothermal heating is a way of generating energy from the temperature difference between the inner layers of the Earth and the Earth's crust. How is it possible to extract this ...
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Did the Geothermal Power Plant contribute to Pahoa's Lava Fissures?
There was lava in the area near the wells that the Puna Geothermal Venture facility created.
The plant has nine wells that run as deep as 8,000 feet, according to Wil Okabe, managing director for ...
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Why is the temperature between the earth core and surface not distributed linearly?
So I read somewhere that the inner core temperature of Earth might be as high as 7000 °C.
Depending on the composition of the different layers towards the surface, the temperature should decline ...
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Is there a correlation between hot springs and earthquakes?
Is there a correlation between how many hot springs an area has, and how frequent or severe the area's earthquakes are?
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Why is the deep sea cold?
Except near thermal vents, the deep ocean is generally considered to be quite cool. For instance, water temps in the Mariana Trench (~10 km deep) are 1-4 °C.
However, the geothermal gradient runs ...
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viable geothermal energy supply from exhausted fracked gas wells?
The UK legislator with primary responsibility for energy has claimed that exhausted fracked natural-gas wells will be suitable for re-use as a geothermal energy supply (not necessarily geothermal for ...
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Canadian equivalent to AMLIS database?
I am interested in in situ coal fires. In furtherance of this, I am hoping to find a database of Canadian mine reclamation sites, complete with incident or status reports and descriptions of specific ...
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How is heat transferred from the core through the mantle to the crust?
So, there are three main methods of transferring heat: radiation, convection/mass transfer, and conduction. Presumably radiation is not a major method of heat transport between the core and the crust, ...
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Is it feasible to use depleted oil wells for geothermal production?
There is an oil field outside my hometown. I wonder if it is feasible to use the same oil wells for geothermal production after oil production rate drops below profitable point.
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What is the geothermal potential of a volcano?
If there were lots of geothermal plants—even mobile ones—near a volcano, how much power could this provide? Could the sapping of some of the heat energy make the volcano less likely to erupt?
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What is the geochemical origin of carbon dioxide with the 'white smokers' of the Champagne Vent?
Associated with the NW Eifuku volcano, a small submarine volcano in Japan's Volcano Island chain in the Pacific Ocean is a carbon dioxide rich hydrothermal vents called white smokers by NOAA (see ...
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Where did the energy released due to gravitational binding energy of the Earth go? [closed]
The gravitational binding energy of the Earth is $2×10^{32} J $, so the same amount of energy must have been released during the Earth's history.
According to this and this, the current internal ...
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What is the current equilibrium surface temperature of Earth, i.e. without the sun?
Without the sun to keep the Earth's temperature topped up to something comfortable, what would be the equilibrium surface temperature range. It would obviously be a balance between outgoing radiation ...
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Does the geothermal activity influence the climate in Iceland?
Iceland has a much more temperate climate than its latitude (~65 degrees) would suggest, thanks to the North Atlantic Current bringing relatively warm water/air so far up north.
There is a lot of ...
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How much heat flow is needed to maintain plate tectonics?
The Earth is emitting about 47 terawatts of heat energy, producing a heat flow of 0.0921 W/m$^2$ due to radiogenic and primordial heat energy. The heat flow drives mantle convection which in turn ...
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Is pure "heat" harmful to the environment?
Is heat, dissipated from a hot conductor to the surrounding air harmful to the environment? If it were large-scale would it have any negative eco-effect?
Is a source of heat, considered harmful to ...
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Would the subsurface event leading to tree death at West Tern Lake in Yellowstone be visible in thermal imaging?
The New York Times article It’s Warm and Stealthy, and It Killed Yellowstone Trees and Turned Soil Pale describes an even that took place over the past few decades where a small and well-defined ...
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Why is my pond / lake melting when the temperature is still far below freezing?
I recently moved into a new house with a 2 acre lake behind it. We’ve had 15 consecutive days below freezing, and the last 12 of those have been below 20 degrees (Fahrenheit)! Six days ago I shoveled ...
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At what depth does the underground begin to warm up?
Spring water comes out colder from being underground. But if you get deeper the temperature goes up. At what depth does the underground stop getting colder and begins getting warmer?
Is there a map ...
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Does Earth's magnetic field arise from a fission reactor in its core?
I heard about the georeactor hypothesis (Herndon, 1993), which claims that there is a natural atomic fission reactor in the Earth's core giving rise to the geomagnetic field. Further, Herndon claims ...
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If the Sun disappeared, how long would it take for the Earth to freeze beyond excavatable depths?
If the Sun disappeared
How long would it take for the earth to freeze beyond excavatable
depths?
How long until it freezes to the core? (Is this different than without removing the Sun?)
Would we be ...
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Wasn't Earth a magma ocean before core-mantle differentiation?
I've always thought that the process of planetary accretion was energetic enough to keep the proto-Earth entirely molten, and the subsequent evolution of the planet (the formation of the crust, etc...)...
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Are hot springs in non-volcanic areas radioactive?
Hot springs in non-volcanic areas are attributed to the interaction of water with hot rocks deep in the earth's crust:
In non-volcanic areas, the temperature of rocks within the Earth also ...
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Digging depth and heat
I have a question about the underground heat at different distances from the core of the Earth.
I was wondering if there was a depth at which you can dig that the decrease in heat (as a result of ...
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What are the tallest hydrothermal vents in the world?
Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near active volcanic areas and provide for a rich and complex environment for many biological organisms (archaea, bacteria, tube worms...). Many new hydrothermal ...
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What determines rock temperature inside mountains?
Wikipedia article says about the Gotthard Base Tunnel:
"It is the deepest railway tunnel in the world, with a maximum depth of 2,450 m (8,040 ft), comparable to that of the deepest mines on Earth....
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Why is ground water rising on these forest rings?
I am seeking a physical explanation for this;
There is huge amount of such a Forest rings in Earth; (Link to Google Maps to one ~400 m Ring)
They range in diameter from 30 metres to 2 kilometres, ...
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As the earth's core cools, will the size be affected?
Objects can change in size when their temperature changes. I'm wondering whether the cooling of the earth's core will affect it's size? Or will the change be insignificant due to the elements and ...
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Why does it feel hotter at night?
Why does the same temperature feel hotter at night? For example, 70 degrees literally feels hot at night when outside but during the day 70 degrees feels just mild when outside. Why is that? And ...
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What Keeps the Earth Cooking?
If radioactive decay supplies only about half the Earth’s heat, what are the remaining sources of heat?
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What is the average temperature of the whole planet Earth, not just the surface?
What is the average temperature of the Earth when you take into account all of the layers, not just the surface? Everything I've found so far concern only the surface or each layer individually. But ...
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How does the subsurface earth temperature vary around the world?
In the US, when constructing a geothermal heat pump, common knowledge holds that anywhere in the country the subsurface ground temperature at a depth of 5 m will be around 10 to 15 C, which is a good ...
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Why is fluid pressure in a fractured rock reservoir only dependent on hydrostatic pressure?
Why does lithostatic pressure not play a role? (or does it?)
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How much of Earth's internal heat comes from primordial heating and how has it changed since Earth's formation?
I'm trying to get a general idea of how Earth and other planets behave over time for a project. While I can find plenty of good data about how much radiative heating there was, I can't find anything ...
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How we can find hot spring genesis time?
Is there any way we can calculate the time when a particular hot spring come into existence? Also I wanted to know what is average time period for a active hot spring in general, whether it can flow ...
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Are pumps used in geothermal systems?
The water held underground in a geothermal system is under high temperature and pressure. Are pumps used to raise the very hot underground water to the surface or does the water rise under its own ...
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At what depth does the ground stop getting cooler/hotter(summer/winter) and it starts to warm up?Where is the MAT depth or geothermal crossover?
Lookin into geothermal cooling, and want to learn more about how temperature behaves at different depths, not too deep like 100 meters or so, ignoring unusual stuff like geysers and things.
I want to ...
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How would district heating affect the temperature of the earth's mantle/core?
I recently came across this article outlining the use of our advancements in oil and gas drilling to implement "district heating" (or geothermal heating for our buildings/cities as a whole) ...
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why does Earth have three wind cells instead of just one? [duplicate]
I wondered what causes three wind cells on earth -Hadley Cells, Ferrel Cells, and Polar Cells, instead of just a one big cell from equator to the pole?
I'd like a straightforward, intuitive ...
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Thermal spring. Gas and water characterization
I am interested in assessing a thermal spring in the Ecuadorian Andes. However I have no experience in these type of geological features and I am not sure how to proceed. The spring is located over ...
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Source of heat in the center of Earth
If I read around most of comments and articles on the Internet give two main reasons for the heat found in the depths of our planet :
Super high pressure at the center of it
Radioactive decay
I need ...
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