Abstract
Analysis of about 2000 terrestrial heat flow observations indicates that heat flow values are well correlated with major geological features: higher averages and more scattered values in active tectonic areas, and lower averages and more uniform values in stable areas. Average heat flow over the continents does not differ significantly from that over the oceans. This equality of heat flow suggests that radioactive elements per unit volume are about the same beneath land and sea. This further implies that the upper mantle under the continents is different from that under the oceans. Thermal history of the earth deduced from recent observations is also described.
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References
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Paper read at the IAV International Symposium on Volcanology (New Zealand), scientific session of Nov. 26, 1965.
Publication 482, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
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Lee, W.H.K. The present state of heat flow observations. Bull Volcanol 29, 313–325 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02597160
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02597160