Summary
The significant correlation coefficient between the terrestial heat flow and thermal conductivity computed from the continental heat flow data byHorai andNur [1]2) may be explained as a natural consequence of terrestrial heat flow through a random medium. The theory predicts a value of 0.40 for the correlation coefficient. A simple statistical test shows that the majority of the computed coefficients belong to the statistical population whose mean is equal to the theoretical correlation coefficient. There are, however, a few observations of unsually high correlation coefficient which cannot be explained by the above hypothesis.
References
K. Horai andA. Nur,Relationship among terrestrial heat flow, thermal conductivity and geothermal gradient, Jour of Geophys. Res.75, No. 11, (1970), 1985–1991.
P. S. Naidu,Heat flow in random medium: First order theory, Pure and Applied Geophysics,79 (1970/II), 73–84.
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Naidu, P.S. Correlation between terrestrial heat flow and thermal conductivity. PAGEOPH 88, 154–158 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877900
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877900