Abstract
We compile, analyse and map all available geothermal heat flow measurements collected in and around Greenland into a new database of 419 sites and generate an accompanying spatial map. This database includes 290 sites previously reported by the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC), for which we now standardize measurement and metadata quality. This database also includes 129 new sites, which have not been previously reported by the IHFC. These new sites consist of 88 offshore measurements and 41 onshore measurements, of which 24 are subglacial. We employ machine learning to synthesize these in situ measurements into a gridded geothermal heat flow model that is consistent across both continental and marine areas in and around Greenland. This model has a native horizontal resolution of 55 km. In comparison to five existing Greenland geothermal heat flow models, our model has the lowest mean geothermal heat flow for Greenland onshore areas (44 mW m–2). Our model’s most distinctive spatial feature is pronounced low geothermal heat flow (< 40 mW m–2) across the North Atlantic Craton of southern Greenland. Crucially, our model does not show an area of elevated heat flow that might be interpreted as remnant from the Icelandic Plume track. Finally, we discuss the substantial influence of paleoclimatic and other corrections on geothermal heat flow measurements in Greenland. The in-situ measurement database and gridded heat flow model, as well as other supporting materials, are freely available from the GEUS DataVerse (https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/F9P03L; Colgan and Wansing, 2021).
Highlights
Assessing the magnitude and spatial distribution of geothermal heat flow across Greenland is important for many reasons, such as mapping geothermal springs and energy resources, constraining a key basal boundary condition for the permafrost, glaciers, and the ice sheet, and understanding the generation and preservation of hydrocarbon accumulations
A fundamental challenge in reliably interpolating the magnitude and spatial distribution of geothermal heat flow across Greenland is the paucity of local heat flow measurements or estimates with which to constrain regional heat flow models
We have documented the first version of the Greenland Geothermal Heat Flow Database and Map
Summary
Assessing the magnitude and spatial distribution of geothermal heat flow across Greenland is important for many reasons, such as mapping geothermal springs and energy resources, constraining a key basal boundary condition for the permafrost, glaciers, and the ice sheet, and understanding the generation and preservation of hydrocarbon accumulations. The current generation of Greenland regional heat flow models still show substantial disagreement (Rezvanbehbahani et al, 2017; Martos et al, 2018; Greve, 2019). A fundamental challenge in reliably interpolating the magnitude and spatial distribution of geothermal heat flow across Greenland is the paucity of local heat flow measurements or estimates with which to constrain regional heat flow models. Of the 40,870 onshore heat flow measurements presently catalogued in the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC) database, just ten (~0.02%) are onshore in Greenland (Fuchs et al, 2021). While several studies have assembled additional non-IHFC heat flow measurements from published sources (Martos et al, 2018; Rysgaard et al, 2018), it is highly desirable to have a comprehensive, and continuously updated, open-access repository of all Greenland heat flow measurements. It is desirable to have an open-access Greenland heat-flow map that is both self-consistent with that updating repository
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