Quality makes a difference: a preliminary update of the global continental heat flow dataset

Abstract

Recently, the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC), the Task Force VIII of the International Lithosphere Program (ILP) and a global network of geoscientists have jointly developed new standards for the structure and the quality evaluation of heat flow-density data. Heat-flow data are important for understanding the temperature field at shallow depths to the lithospheric scale and thus are fundamental for geodynamic and tectonic processes as well as for geoenergy applications, like geothermal utilizations. It often builds an essential parameter for analytical or numerical models of subsurface thermal models. Since 2021, the Global Heat Flow Database is undergoing an intensive collaborative assessment considering the new defined standards. The new quality scheme, for the first time, will allow a joint classification of data in terms of (i) numerical uncertainty, (ii) methodological evaluation, and (iii) overriding or perturbing effects. On the example of the Global Heat Flow Database Release 2024, we present for a regional example how the assessment changes the data density and detail of information stored and how the new quality standards effect regional heat flow statistics.