We present a new estimate of the Earth's heat loss based on a new global compilation of heat flow measurements comprising 24,774 observations at 20,201 sites. On a 5 ø x 5 ø grid, the observations cover 62% of the Earth's surface. Empirical estimators, referenced to geological map units and derived from the observations, enable heat flow to be estimated in areas without measurements. Corrections for the effects of hydrothermal circulation in the oceanic crest compensate for the advected heat undetected in measurements of the conductive heat flux. The mean heat flows of continents and oceans are 65 and 101 mW m -2, respectively, which when areally weighted yield a global mean of 87 mW m -2 and a global heat loss of 44.2 x 10 •2 W, an increase of some 4-8% over earlier estimates. More than half of the Earth's heat loss comes from Cenozoic oceanic lithosphere. A spherical hatmonic analysis of the global heat flow field reveals strong sectoral components and lesser zonal strength. The spectrum principally reflects the geographic distribution of the ocean ridge system. The rate at which the heat flow spectrum loses strength with increasing harmonic degree is similar to the decline in spectral strength exhibited by the Earth's topography. The spectra of the gravitational and magnetic fields fall off much more steeply, consistent with field sources in the lower mantle and core, respectively. Families of continental and oceanic conductive geotherms indicate the range of temperatures existing in the lithosphere under various surface heat flow conditions. The heat flow field is very well correlated with the seismic shear wave velocity distribution near the top of the upper mantle.
Geothermal resources for most European countries are compiled in the recently published Atlas of Geothermal Resources in Europe, a companion volume to the Atlas of Geothermal Resources in the European Community, Austria and Switzerland. Publication of the atlas comes at a time when the promotion of a sustainable and non-polluting energy supply are high on the agenda of local energy suppliers, municipal administrations and all European governments. The participating countries are: Albania,
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AbstractThe need for CO 2 emissions reduction at a large scale globally implies that CO 2 injection into the subsurface be undertaken in a greater variety of geological environments that has been the case previously. Often when the storage reservoirs are saline aquifers, exploration data for proposed injection sites are extremely sparse. The special behaviour of CO 2 -water/brine systems (mutual solubility and chemical reactivity) adds complex processes, such as dry-out, salting-out, chemical reactions to the dynamic model. Simulation in these situations is one of few means of assessing an injection site and testing various scenarios. The accurate description of physics and chemistry in numerical simulation tools is fundamental for understanding processes, as well as designing appropriate injection or mitigation strategies.We present simulations of CO 2 injection into saline aquifers with a fully compositional code that has been expanded and enhanced to include specific phenomena, such as dryingout and salting-out. The examples illustrate the importance of pre-injection studies, as the wrong injection strategy may severely impact injectivity, putting the project in jeopardy.
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