Heat carried by ground water serves as a tracer to identify surface water infiltration, flow through fractures, and flow patterns in ground water basins. Temperature measurements can be analyzed for recharge and discharge rates, the effects of surface warming, interchange with surface water, hydraulic conductivity of streambed sediments, and basin-scale permeability. Temperature data are also used in formal solutions of the inverse problem to estimate ground water flow and hydraulic conductivity. The fundamentals of using heat as a ground water tracer were published in the 1960s, but recent work has significantly expanded the application to a variety of hydrogeological settings. In recent work, temperature is used to delineate flows in the hyporheic zone, estimate submarine ground water discharge and depth to the salt-water interface, and in parameter estimation with coupled ground water and heat-flow models. While short reviews of selected work on heat as a ground water tracer can be found in a number of research papers, there is no critical synthesis of the larger body of work found in the hydrogeological literature. The purpose of this review paper is to fill that void and to show that ground water temperature data and associated analytical tools are currently underused and have not yet realized their full potential.

http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~andy/GW_Heat%20as%20a%20Tracer.pdf

Heat as a ground water tracer.

Coastal hydrogeologists and oceanographers now recognize the potentially significant contribution that submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) could make to the coastal ocean. SGD may be both volumetrically and chemically important to coastal water and chemical budgets. A worldwide compilation of observed SGD shows that groundwater seepage from the land to the ocean occurs in many environments along the world’s continental margins. Further, SGD has a significant influence on the environmental condition of many nearshore marine environments and provides a strong motivation for improved assessments. Our review reveals a critical lack of data from coastal zones of almost all parts of the world, especially in South America, Africa and parts of Asia, making a comprehensive compilation incomplete. SGD should be paid more attention with regard to water and dissolved material budgets at the local and global scales. SGD intercomparison experiments and coastal typologies (classification) may enable evaluation of the accuracy of the SGD estimates and up-scaling of SGD to a global scale. Copyright  2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Investigation of submarine groundwater discharge

Fault zone hydrogeology

https://eps.mcgill.ca/~mckenzie/reprint/mckenzieetal2006SUTRA-ICE.pdf

Groundwater flow with energy transport and water-ice phase change: Numerical simulations, benchmarks, and application to freezing in peat bogs

Non-conductive heat transfer associated with frozen soils

In conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey's exploration program in the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska (NPRA) several high-resolution temperature logs were made in each of 21 drillholes between 1977 and 1984. These time-series of shallow (average 600-m depth) temperature profiles were extrapolated to infinite time to yield equilibrium temperature profiles (±0.1 °C). Thermal gradients are inversely correlated with elevation, and vary from 22 °C/km in the foothills of the Brooks Range to as high as 53 °C/km on the coastal plain to the north. Shallow temperature data were supplemented with 24 equilibrium temperatures (±3-5 °C) estimated from series of bottom-hole temperatures (BHTs) measured near the bottom of petroleum exploration wells. A total of 601 thermal conductivity measurements were made on drill cuttings and cores. Near-surface heat flow (±20%) is inversely correlated with elevation and ranges from a low of 27 mW/m2 in the foothills of the Brooks Range in the south, to a high of 90 mW/m2 near the north coast. Subsurface temperatures and thermal gradients estimated from corrected BHTs are similarly much higher on the coastal plain than in the foothills province to the south. Significant east-west variation in heat flow and subsurface temperature is also observed; higher heat flow and temperature coincide with higher basement topography. The observed thermal pattern is consistent with forced convection by a topographically driven ground-water flow system; alternative explanations are largely unsatisfactory. Average ground-water (Darcy) velocity in the postulated flow system is estimated to be of the order of 0.1 m/yr; the effective basin-scale permeability is estimated to be of the order of 10-14 m2. Organic maturation data collected in other studies indicate that systematic variations in thermal state may have persisted for tens of millions of years. The ground-water flow system thought to be responsible for present heat-flow variations conceivably has existed for the same period of time, possibly providing the driving mechanism for petroleum migration and accumulation at Prudhoe Bay.

Heat flow and subsurface temperature as evidence for basin-scale ground-water flow, North Slope of Alaska

Heat may be released catastrophically from the continental crust by the onset of free convection in orogenic zones. Orogeny itself could create the conditions necessary for free convection by increasing the permeability of the crust. In the specific case of a continental collision zone, the conditions favoring free convection may move progressively into continental interiors, perhaps to repeated episodes of convection and related thermal events. Simple models and assumptions suggest that individual episodes of convection circulation and heat release persist for periods of time of the order of 10 6 yr or less. The rate and magnitude of energy release depend upon the initial thermal state and permeability of the crust and the depth of fluid circulation. Estimates made from typical parameters indicate that the total thermal energy released from the crust is approximately equivalent to an increase of background heat flow from about 60 to 200 mW/m 2 for a period of 10 6 yr. A significant amount of this heat can be transported into the interior of a continent by a gravity-driven flow system if a continuous aquifer of sufficient permeability is present. The hypothesis could explain several phenomena attributed to tectonically driven fluids associated with the Alleghenian-Ouachita orogeny. These include the formation of Mississippi Valley-type lead-zinc deposits, widespread potassic alteration, and remagnetizations. Although speculative, the hypothesis is consistent with our current state of knowledge concerning the extent of fluid circulation in the continental crust.

Catastrophic release of heat and fluid flow in the continental crust

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Heat flow and subsurface temperature as evidence for basin-scale ground-water flow, North Slope of Alaska

Catastrophic release of heat and fluid flow in the continental crust