Effect of postglacial warming seen in high precision temperature log deep into the granites in NE Alberta

• Published in: International Journal of Earth Sciences
• Main Authors: Majorowicz, J., Šafanda, J. (Jan)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: surface processes; borehole temperatures; climatic warming; Ice Age; heat flow; Fort McMurray
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-014-1075-9; http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0237405

Recently reported new terrestrial heat flow density (referred further to as "heat flow") determination from a 2.36-km-deep well of opportunity (AOC Granite-Hunt well) drilled deep into some 2- to 2.4-Gyr-year old Precambrian basement rocks just west of Fort McMurray, Alberta, shows increase of heat flow with depth. Cores were collected from granites, which are below 0.55 km and to the well bottom of 2.36 km. This borehole was logged in June 2011, and several years after, it was drilled in 1994 and deepened in 2003. Therefore, it is assumed to be in thermal equilibrium. Temperature versus depth shows a significant increase in the thermal gradient with increasing depth in the basement rocks.