Abstract
This paper summarises the 71 values of heat flow that have been collected to date in England, Scotland and Wales. The mean heat flow for the region is 58.5 mWm−2. Belts of relatively high and relatively low values are defined.
All heat flow determinations compiled in this paper have been made from temperature gradients measured down boreholes or mines, combined with measured or assigned values of thermal conductivity. Various methods have been employed in obtaining these parameters and, in order to permit comparisons between results, a reliability code is assigned to each heat flow value. The first number of the code refers to temperature measurements and the criteria employed are summarised in Table 1. The second number refers to thermal conductivity values measured or assigned as summarised in Table 2. The conditions implied by a specific code apply to at least 150 m of the hole or the total depth if less than 150 m. In general, higher values of the code imply greater reliability than lower ones.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, E.M.: Loss of heat by conduction from the Earth’s crust in Britain. Proc. R. Soc. Edinb. 60, 192–209 (1940)
Benfield, A.E.: Terrestrial heat flow in Britain. Proc. R. Soc. 173A, 430–450 (1939)
Birch, F.: The effects of Pleistocene climatic variations upon geothermal gradients. Am. J. Sci. 246, 729–760 (1948)
Birch, F.: Flow of heat in the Front Range Colorado. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 61, 567–630 (1950)
Bott, M.H.P., Johnson, G.A.L., Mansfield, J., Wheildon, J.: Terrestrial heat flow in north east England. Geophys. J.R. Astr. Soc. 27, 277–288 (1972)
Bullard, E.G.: The time necessary for a borehole to attain temperature equilibrium. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. Geophys. Suppl. 4, 309–312 (1947)
Bullard, E.G., Niblett, E.R.: Terrestrial heat flow in England. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. Geophys. Suppl. 6, 222–238 (1951)
Chadwick, P.: Heat flow from the earth at Cambridge. Nature (London) 178, 105–106 (1956)
Cull, J.P.: The pressure and temperature dependence of thermal conductivity within the earth. D. Phil. Thesis, Univ. Oxford, unpubl. (1975)
Jeffreys, H.: Disturbances of the temperature gradient in the Earth’s crust by inequalities of height. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. Geophys. Suppl. 4, 309–312 (1938)
Mullins, R., Hinsley, F.B.: Measurement of Geothermic gradients in boreholes. Trans. Inst. Min. Eng. 117, 379–393 (1957)
Oxburgh, E.R., Richardson, S.W., Turcotte, D.L., Hsui, A.: Equilibrium borehole temperatures from observation of thermal transients during drilling. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 14, 47–49 (1972)
Oxburgh, E.R., Richardson, S.W., Bloomer, J.R., Martin, A., Wright, S.: Sub-surface temperatures from heat flow studies in the United Kingdom. Semin. Geotherm. Energy (Commission of the European Communities) 1, 155–173 (1977)
Pollack, H.N., Chapman, D.S.: On the regional variation of heat flow, geotherms, and lithospheric thickness. Tectonophysics 38, 279–296 (1977)
Richardson, S.W., Oxburgh, E.R.: Heat flow, radiogenic heat production and crustal temperatures in England and Wales. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 135, 323–337 (1978)
Roy, R.F., Decker, E.R., Blackwell, D.D., Birch, F.: Heat flow in the United States. J. Geophys. Res. 73, 5207–5221 (1968)
Sass, J.H., Lachenbruch, A.H., Jessop, A.M.: Uniform heat flow in a deep hole in the Canadian shield and its palaeoclimatic implications. J. Geophys. Res. 76, 8586–8596 (1971)
Tammemagi, H.Y., Wheildon, J.: Terrestrial heat flow and heat generation in south-west England. Geophys. J.R. Astr. Soc. 38, 83–94 (1974)
Tammemagi, H.Y., Wheildon, J.: Further data on the south-west England heat flow anomaly. Geophys. J.R. Astr. Soc. 49, 531–539 (1977)
Von Herzen, R.P., Maxwell, A.E.: The measurement of thermal conductivity of deep-sea sediments by a needle-probe method. J. Geophys. Res. 64, 1557–1563 (1959)
Vries, D.A. de. Peck, A.J.: On the cylindrical probe method of measuring thermal conductivity with special reference to soils. Aust. J. Phys. 11, 255–271 (1958)
Wheildon, J., Francis, M.F., Thomas-Betts, A.: Investigation of the S.W. England thermal anomaly zone. Semin. Geotherm. Energy (Commission of the European Communities) 1, 175–188 (1977)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1979 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bloomer, J.R., Richardson, S.W., Oxburgh, E.R. (1979). Heat Flow in Britain: an Assessment of the Values and Their Reliability. In: Čermák, V., Rybach, L. (eds) Terrestrial Heat Flow in Europe. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-95357-6_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-95357-6_31
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-95359-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-95357-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive