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Radioactive heat production in rocks and its relation to other petrophysical parameters

  • Thermal and Radioactive Properties
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Summary

Radioactive heat productionA is a scalar and isotropic petrophysical property independent of in situ temperature and pressure. Its value is usually expressed in HGU units (1 HGU=10−13 cal/cm3 sec) and depends on the amounts of uranium, thorium and potassium.A varies with rock type over several orders of magnitude and reflects the geochemical conditions during rock formation (magmatic differentiation, sedimentation or metamorphism).

In order to assign realistic thermal parameters to deeper-seated rocks correlations with seismic velocity (which can be determined from the surface) have been looked for. In the range characteristic for crystalline rocks of the crust (5–8 km/sec)A is strongly correlated with density and compressional wave velocityv p:A decreases with increasingv p orp. From this relationship it is now possible to estimate heat production values for any particular layer of a crustal section from measured seismic velocities. Contrary to earlier belief there is, as shown by experimental determinations, no correlation between heat productionA and thermal conductivityK in igneous and metamorphic rocks. In sediments however, especially in sand/shale sequences, a correlation betweenK andA is most likely: increasing clay mineral content, characterized by increasingA, causes the decrease ofK in these rocks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich, Box 266, CH-8049, Zürich, Switzerland

    Ladislaus Rybach

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  1. Ladislaus Rybach
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Contribution No. 111, Institute of Geophysics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland.

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Rybach, L. Radioactive heat production in rocks and its relation to other petrophysical parameters. PAGEOPH 114, 309–317 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00878955

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00878955

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