Heat flow variations in the presence of an irregular contact of different rock type

Abstract

The effect of an irregular contact of two different rock types on the surface heat flow was analysed for the Zlatý Kopec region in northwest Bohemia. The 2-D geothermal model of subsurface structures was compiled according to measured values of the thermal conductivity and heat sources and by using isobaths map of the metamorphite-granite boundary. The heat flow was computed numerically from the temperature distribution obtained as a finite-difference solution of the heat conduction equation. It was found that the heat flow variation, corresponding to the most probable model, amounts approximately to the half of the actually observed changes. The surface heat flow is affected strongly by the thermal conductivity contrast between the overlying metamorphites and underlying granites and, on the contrary, it is little sensitive to the heat production difference between both rock types. It seems, therefore, that, despite the big heat production contrast observed, the main source of the heat flow variability are thermal conductivity inhomogeneities.