Geothermal gradient

Al zahraa fatima el chiekh

 Definition:
• Geothermal gradient is the rate of increasing
temperature with respect to increasing depth
in the esrth's interior, which is determined by
dividing the difference in temperature
between two vertical points by the vertical
distance between them. Away from tectonic
plate boundaries, it is about 25 °C per km of
depth (1 °F per 70 feet of depth) near the
surface in most of the world.
Temperature measurement
• Various methods of obtaining subsurface temperatures
1. temperature measuring devices. estimates, and temperatures
recorded during drill-stem tests, bottom-hole-pressure surveys,
production tests.
2. The most frequently used temperature measuring device is the
thermlstorresistance thermometer.
3. Bottom-hole-pressure surveys and production tests furnish
excellent temperature data.
Temperature measurement
• Major factors that influence temperature measurements are:
1. drilling processes .
2. thermal conductivity.
• Other leas significant factors include:
1. borehole convection currents.
2. borehole contents.
3. subsurface water flow, climate variations.
4. weathering;.
5. erosion, uplift, topography, structure, geologic age, casing effects, local
sources of radioactivity, and intrusive masses.
Heat source :
• The geothermal energy of the Earth's crust originates from the
original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of
materials.
• Explication :
Heat source :
• Earth was hot when it formed. A lot of Earth’s heat is leftover from
when our planet formed, four-and-a-half billion years ago. Earth is
thought to have arisen from a cloud of gas and dust in space. Solid
particles, called “planetesimals” condensed out of the cloud. They’re
thought to have stuck together and created the early Earth.
Bombarding planetesimals heated Earth to a molten state.
• So Earth started out with a lot of heat
Heat source :
• Earth makes some of its own heat. Earth is cooling now – but very, very slowly.
Earth is close to a steady temperature state. Over the past several billion years, it
might have cooled a couple of hundred degrees. Earth keeps a nearly steady
temperature, because it makes heat in its interior.
• In other words, Earth has been losing heat since it formed, billions of years ago.
But it’s producing almost as much heat as it’s losing. The process by which Earth
makes heat is called radioactive decay. It involves the disintegration of natural
radioactive elements inside Earth – like uranium, for example. Uranium is a
special kind of element because when it decays, heat is produced. It’s this heat
that keeps Earth from cooling off completely.
• Many of the rocks in Earth’s crust and interior undergo this process of radioactive
decay . This process produces subatomic particles that zip away, and later collide
with surrounding material inside the Earth. Their energy of motion is converted
to heat
 Heat source :
Present-day major heat-producing isotopes

Mean mantle
Heat release concentration Heat release
Isotope Half-life [years]
[W/kg isotope] [kg isotope/kg [W/kg mantle
mantle]
238U 9.46 × 10−5 4.47 × 109 30.8 × 10−9 2.91 × 10−12

235U 5.69 × 10−4 7.04 × 108 0.22 × 10−9 1.25 × 10−13

232Th 2.64 × 10−5 1.40 × 1010 124 × 10−9 3.27 × 10−12

40K 2.92 × 10−5 1.25 × 109 36.9 × 10−9 1.08 × 10−12

Heat flow
• We present a new estimate of the Earth's heat loss based on a new
global compilation of heat flow measurements comprising 24,774
observations at 20,201 sites. On a 5° × 5° grid, the observations cover
62% of the Earth's surface :
• the global heat loss of 44.2 × 1012 W, an increase of some 4–8% over
earlier estimate .
• The global geothermal flow rates are more than twice the rate of
human energy consumption from all primary sources.
 Heat flow
• The heat loss can by convection or by
conduction :

• Convection :the heat flow is more important in

areas where thermal energy is transported
toward the crust by convection such as along
mid-ocean ridges and mantle plumes. More of
the heat in the Earth is lost through plate
tectonics, by mantle upwelling associated with
mid-ocean ridges
Heat flow

• Conduction : through the lithosphere, the majority of which occurs in

the oceans due to the crust there being much thinner and younger
than under the continents. Heat flow is 65 mW/m2 over continental
crust and 101 mW/m2 over oceanic crust mates.
• The thermal conductivity is influenced by composition, porosity, grain
size and shape, fluid content, temperature, and pressure.
Direct application
Elements of a geothermal system:
Groundwater flows down to depths of a few kilometers, gets heated up and rises to the surface by convection.
•Heat source: Underlying the system at depth is hot magma.
•Rising water: Groundwater near the magma becomes heated and more buoyant than the surrounding colder
waters and rises through pathways that lead to the surface (hot water is also less viscous than cold water).
•Hot water plume: The rising water is discharged at the surface through hot
springs and steaming ground.

• Interaction: The rising fluids interact chemically with the surrounding rocks and their temperature elements
of a geothermal system
• Groundwater flows down to depths of a few kilometers, gets heated up and rises to the surface by
convection.
Direct application

• A schematic showing how

groundwater is warmed
Direct application
• Other direct application :
• Bathing
• Space heating
• Industrial processing
• Horticulture
• Aquaculture
• Generating electricity
Relation between geothermal gradient and oil
generation :
• Geothermal gradients are necessary for the analysis of reservoir fluid
properties because temperature is one of the primary factors
controlling hydrocarbon generation, sediment diagenesis and
migration of hydrocarbon and other pore fluids.
• Temperature is clearly the most important factor, thus hydrocarbons
can be produced experimentally from kerogen by heating it !!
• Temperature increases with increasing overburden, causing that the
chemical bonds in these large molecules (kerogen) are broken and
kerogen is transformed into smaller molecules which make up oil and
gas
Relation between geothermal gradient and oil
generation :

• This require temperature (80–150◦C

over long geological
time) corresponds to a depth of 3–
4 km with a normal geothermal
gradient (about 30–40◦C/km).
Relation between geothermal gradient and oil
exploration :
• The computed geothermal gradient map could be used in the application of the
liquid hydrocarbon -window concept for oil exploration.
• Variations in depths and thicknesses of the principal zone of oil formation
(PZOF) can be the result of variations in the geothermal gradients
• Geothermal gradients are inversely related to thermal conductivity ,Fluid
saturation(oil) , as compared to air, increases conductivity. Increasing the
temperature results in decreasing the conductivity, while increasing the
pressure results in increasing the conductivity.
• Thus :there is need to extend drilling programmes below the depth of
exploration activity in the basin especially in regions with very low geothermal
gradients.
Some definitions
• Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the
Earth.
• Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of
matter.
• The geothermal gradient is the difference in temperature between
the core of the planet and its surface,wich drives a continuous
conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to
the surface.
• The term "maturity" refers here to the degree of thermal
transformation of kerogen into hydrocarbons and ultimately into gas
and graphite.
References
• Wikipedia
• Earth sky web
• Wiley online library
• AGU publication
• GNA science.
• Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists members ,active in the nation-
wide American Association of Petroleum .
• Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 4, no. 3, 2014,
109-114 ISSN: 1792-9040 (print), 1792-9660 (online) Scienpress Ltd, 2014
• Journal of Petroleum Geology 7, 1, pp. 77-86, 1984
• Learning geology web