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Geothermal activity mostly appears in volcanic provinces, where it is fueled by the presence of a magma chamber. In some rare cases it can be caused by underground fires or by large deposits of radioactive elements. Other sources of internal heating can be gravitational differentiation of substances, tidal friction, metamorphism, or phase ...
Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for millennia. Geothermal heating, using water from hot springs, for example, has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times and for space heating since Roman times. Geothermal power (generation of electricity from geothermal energy), has been used since the 20th ...
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circulation through faults to hot rock deep in the Earth's crust .
Geothermal activity, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal heat. Earth's internal heat budget, accounting of the flows of energy at and below the surface of the planet's crust; Geothermal gradient, down which heat flows within the Earth
In geothermal heating projects the underground is penetrated by trenches or drillholes. As with all underground work, projects may cause problems if the geology of the area is poorly understood. In the spring of 2007 an exploratory geothermal drilling operation was conducted to provide geothermal heat to the town hall of Staufen im Breisgau.
The heat that drives geothermal activity in the Yellowstone area comes from brine (salty water) that is 1.5–3 miles (7,900–15,800 ft; 2,400–4,800 m) below the surface. [3] This is actually below the solid volcanic rock and sediment that extends to a depth of 3,000 to 6,000 feet (900 to 1,800 m) and is inside the hot but mostly solid part ...
The geothermal areas of Yellowstone National Park contain several notable examples of both mudpots and paint pots, as do some areas of Azerbaijan, Iceland, New Zealand and Nicaragua. Several locations in and around the Salton Sea in California are also home to active mudpots, [5] including the moving Niland Geyser.
Earth's internal heat travels along geothermal gradients and powers most geological processes. [3] It drives mantle convection, plate tectonics, mountain building, rock metamorphism, and volcanism. [2] Convective heat transfer within the planet's high-temperature metallic core is also theorized to sustain a geodynamo which generates Earth's ...