Geothermal heating
Encyclopedia
Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ of geothermal heating in 2004. As of 2007, 28 GW of geothermal heating capacity is installed around the world, satisfying 0.07% of global primary energy consumption. Thermal efficiency
is high since no energy conversion is needed, but capacity factor
s tend to be low (around 20%) since the heat is mostly needed in the winter.
Geothermal energy originates from the heat retained within the Earth since the original formation of the planet, from radioactive decay
of minerals, and from solar energy absorbed at the surface. Most high temperature geothermal heat is harvested in regions close to tectonic plate boundaries where volcanic activity rises close to the surface of the Earth. In these areas, ground and groundwater can be found with temperatures higher than the target temperature of the application. However, even cold ground contains heat, below 10' or 3 Meters, the ground is consistently 12.8°C (55°F) in moderate climates, and it may be extracted with a heat pump
.
are used to pump heat from the building in to the transfer medium (typically water with small amounts of ethanol or glycol) and is subsequently pumped through narrow pipes into the ground so that the heat can be dissipated in the earth. When the ambient temperature falls below the ground temperature the process works in reverse. Heat pumps extract heat from the ground and use it to heat the building.
There are a wide variety of applications for cheap geothermal heat. In 2004 more than half of direct geothermal heat was used for space heating, and a third was used for spas. The remainder was used for a variety of industrial processes, desalination, domestic hot water, and agricultural applications. The cities of Reykjavík
and Akureyri
pipe hot water from geothermal plants under roads and pavements to melt snow. Geothermal desalination
has been demonstrated.
Geothermal systems tend to benefit from economies of scale, so space heating power is often distributed to multiple buildings, sometimes whole communities. This technique, long practiced throughout the world in locations such as Reykjavik
, Iceland
, Boise, Idaho
, and Klamath Falls, Oregon
is known as district heating
.
and piped directly into radiators or heat exchanger
s. Alternatively, the heat may come from waste heat
supplied by co-generation from a geothermal electrical plant or from deep wells into hot aquifers. Direct geothermal heating is far more efficient than geothermal electricity generation and has less demanding temperature requirements, so it is viable over a large geographical range. If the shallow ground is hot but dry, air or water may be circulated through earth tubes or downhole heat exchanger
s which act as heat exchangers with the ground.
In areas where the shallow ground is too cold to provide comfort directly, it is still warmer than the winter air. The thermal inertia of the shallow ground retains solar energy accumulated in the summertime, and seasonal variations in ground temperature disappear completely below 10m of depth. That heat can be extracted with a geothermal heat pump more efficiently than it can be generated by conventional furnaces. Geothermal heat pumps are economically viable essentially anywhere in the world. One geothermal district heating system at Drake Landing enhances storage of solar energy in the ground to such an extent that no heat pumps are needed.
Closed loop geothermal heat pumps circulate a carrier fluid (usually a water/antifreeze mix) through pipes buried in the ground. As the fluid circulates underground it absorbs heat from the ground and, on its return, the now warmer fluid passes through the heat pump which uses electricity to extract the heat from the fluid. The re-chilled fluid is sent back into the ground thus continuing the cycle. The heat extracted and that generated by the heat pump appliance as a byproduct is used to heat the house. The addition of the ground heating loop in the energy equation means that more heat is generated than if electricity alone had been used directly for heating.
Switching the direction of heat flow, the same system can be used to circulate the cooled water through the house for cooling in the summer months. The heat is exhausted to the relatively cooler ground (or groundwater) rather than delivering it to the hot outside air as an air conditioner does. As a result, the heat is pumped across a larger temperature difference and this leads to higher efficiency and lower energy use.
This technology makes geothermal heating economically viable in any geographical location. In 2004, an estimated million ground source heat pumps with a total capacity of 15 GW extracted 88 PJ of geothermal energy for space heating. Global geothermal heat pump capacity is growing by 10% annually. Do note that these applicatiuons should all be called ground source heat pumps as the heat has nothing to do with geothermal heat coming from the earth's mantle and core.
Hot springs
have been used for bathing at least since Paleolithic times. The oldest known spa is a stone pool on China
's Mount Li
built in the Qin dynasty
in the 3rd century BC, at the same site where the Huaqing Chi palace was later built. In the first century AD, Romans conquered Aquae Sulis
and used the hot springs there to feed public baths
and underfloor heating
. The admission fees for these baths probably represents the first commercial use of geothermal power. The world's oldest geothermal district heating system in Chaudes-Aigues
, France, has been operating since the 14th century. The earliest industrial exploitation began in 1827 with the use of geyser steam to extract boric acid
from volcanic mud in Larderello
, Italy.
In 1892, America's first district heating system in Boise, Idaho
was powered directly by geothermal energy, and was soon copied in Klamath Falls, Oregon
in 1900. A deep geothermal well was used to heat greenhouses in Boise in 1926, and geysers were used to heat greenhouses in Iceland and Tuscany at about the same time. Charlie Lieb developed the first downhole heat exchanger
in 1930 to heat his house. Steam and hot water from the geysers began to be used to heat homes in Iceland in 1943.
By this time, Lord Kelvin had already invented the heat pump
in 1852, and Heinrich Zoelly
had patented the idea of using it to draw heat from the ground in 1912. But it was not until the late 1940s that the geothermal heat pump was successfully implemented. The earliest one was probably Robert C. Webber's home-made 2.2 kW direct-exchange system, but sources disagree as to the exact timeline of his invention. J. Donald Kroeker designed the first commercial geothermal heat pump to heat the Commonwealth Building (Portland, Oregon)
and demonstrated it in 1946. Professor Carl Nielsen of Ohio State University
built the first residential open loop version in his home in 1948. The technology became popular in Sweden as a result of the 1973 oil crisis
, and has been growing slowly in worldwide acceptance since then. The 1979 development of polybutylene
pipe greatly augmented the heat pump’s economic viability. As of 2004, there are over a million geothermal heat pumps installed worldwide providing 12 GW of thermal capacity. Each year, about 80,000 units are installed in the USA and 27,000 in Sweden.
, geo-exchange systems save homeowners 30-70 percent in heating costs, and 20-50 percent in cooling costs, compared to conventional systems. Geo-exchange systems also save money because they require much less maintenance. In addition to being highly reliable they are built to last for decades.
Some utilities, such as Kansas City Power and Light, offer special, lower winter rates for geothermal customers, offering even more savings.
In the spring of 2007 an exploratory geothermal drilling operation was conducted to provide geothermal heat to the town hall of Staufen im Breisgau. After initially sinking a few millimeters, a process called subsidence
, the city center has started to rise gradually causing considerable damage to buildings in the city center, affecting numerous historic houses including the town hall. It is hypothesized that the drilling perforated an anhydrite
layer bringing high-pressure groundwater
to come into contact with the anhydrite, which then began to expand. Currently no end to the rising process is in sight. Data from the TerraSAR-X
radar satellite before and after the changes confirmed the localised nature of the situation. "A geochemical process called anhydrite
swelling has been confirmed as the cause of these uplift
s. This is a transformation of the mineral anhydrite (anhydrous calcium sulphate) into gypsum
(hydrous calcium sulphate). A pre-condition for this transformation is that the anhydrite is in contact with water, which is then stored in its crystalline structure."
Thermal efficiency
In thermodynamics, the thermal efficiency is a dimensionless performance measure of a device that uses thermal energy, such as an internal combustion engine, a boiler, a furnace, or a refrigerator for example.-Overview:...
is high since no energy conversion is needed, but capacity factor
Capacity factor
The net capacity factor or load factor of a power plant is the ratio of the actual output of a power plant over a period of time and its potential output if it had operated at full nameplate capacity the entire time...
s tend to be low (around 20%) since the heat is mostly needed in the winter.
Geothermal energy originates from the heat retained within the Earth since the original formation of the planet, from radioactive decay
Radioactive decay
Radioactive decay is the process by which an atomic nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing particles . The emission is spontaneous, in that the atom decays without any physical interaction with another particle from outside the atom...
of minerals, and from solar energy absorbed at the surface. Most high temperature geothermal heat is harvested in regions close to tectonic plate boundaries where volcanic activity rises close to the surface of the Earth. In these areas, ground and groundwater can be found with temperatures higher than the target temperature of the application. However, even cold ground contains heat, below 10' or 3 Meters, the ground is consistently 12.8°C (55°F) in moderate climates, and it may be extracted with a heat pump
Heat pump
A heat pump is a machine or device that effectively "moves" thermal energy from one location called the "source," which is at a lower temperature, to another location called the "sink" or "heat sink", which is at a higher temperature. An air conditioner is a particular type of heat pump, but the...
.
Briefly and Simply Explained
Ground source heat pumps rely on an energy exchange between the air within the building being heated and the ground. Below ten feet the earth's temperature is fairly constant, generally around ~10ºC (~50ºF). During the summer when the ambient temperature of the building exceeds that of the ground heat pumpsHeat pump
A heat pump is a machine or device that effectively "moves" thermal energy from one location called the "source," which is at a lower temperature, to another location called the "sink" or "heat sink", which is at a higher temperature. An air conditioner is a particular type of heat pump, but the...
are used to pump heat from the building in to the transfer medium (typically water with small amounts of ethanol or glycol) and is subsequently pumped through narrow pipes into the ground so that the heat can be dissipated in the earth. When the ambient temperature falls below the ground temperature the process works in reverse. Heat pumps extract heat from the ground and use it to heat the building.
Applications
| Country | Production PJ/yr | Capacity GW | CapacityFactor | Dominantapplications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 45.38 | 3.69 | 39% | bathing |
| Sweden | 43.2 | 4.2 | 33% | heat pumps |
| USA | 31.24 | 7.82 | 13% | heat pumps |
| Turkey | 24.84 | 1.5 | 53% | district heating District heating District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating... |
| Iceland | 24.5 | 1.84 | 42% | district heating District heating District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating... |
| Japan | 10.3 | 0.82 | 40% | bathing (onsen Onsen An is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth... s) |
| Hungary | 7.94 | 0.69 | 36% | spas/greenhouses |
| Italy | 7.55 | 0.61 | 39% | spas/space heating |
| New Zealand | 7.09 | 0.31 | 73% | industrial uses |
| 63 others | 71 | 6.8 | ||
| Total | 273 | 28 | 31% | space heating |
There are a wide variety of applications for cheap geothermal heat. In 2004 more than half of direct geothermal heat was used for space heating, and a third was used for spas. The remainder was used for a variety of industrial processes, desalination, domestic hot water, and agricultural applications. The cities of Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
and Akureyri
Akureyri
Akureyri is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's second largest urban area and fourth largest municipality ....
pipe hot water from geothermal plants under roads and pavements to melt snow. Geothermal desalination
Geothermal desalination
Geothermal desalination is a process under development for the production of fresh water using heat energy. Claimed benefits of this method of desalination are that it requires less maintenance than reverse osmosis membranes and that the primary energy input is from geothermal heat, which is a...
has been demonstrated.
Geothermal systems tend to benefit from economies of scale, so space heating power is often distributed to multiple buildings, sometimes whole communities. This technique, long practiced throughout the world in locations such as Reykjavik
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
, Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, Boise, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, and Klamath Falls, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
is known as district heating
District heating
District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating...
.
Extraction
Some parts of the world, including substantial portions of the western USA, are underlain by relatively shallow geothermal resources. Similar conditions exist in Iceland, parts of Japan, and other geothermal hot spots around the world. In these areas, water or steam may be captured from natural hot springsHot Springs
Hot Springs may refer to:* Hot Springs, Arkansas** Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas*Hot Springs, California**Hot Springs, Lassen County, California**Hot Springs, Modoc County, California**Hot Springs, Placer County, California...
and piped directly into radiators or heat exchanger
Heat exchanger
A heat exchanger is a piece of equipment built for efficient heat transfer from one medium to another. The media may be separated by a solid wall, so that they never mix, or they may be in direct contact...
s. Alternatively, the heat may come from waste heat
Waste heat
Waste heat sometimes called Secondary heat or Low-grade heat refers to heat produced by machines, electrical equipment and industrial processes for which no useful application is found. Energy is often produced by a heat engine, running on a source of high-temperature heat...
supplied by co-generation from a geothermal electrical plant or from deep wells into hot aquifers. Direct geothermal heating is far more efficient than geothermal electricity generation and has less demanding temperature requirements, so it is viable over a large geographical range. If the shallow ground is hot but dry, air or water may be circulated through earth tubes or downhole heat exchanger
Downhole heat exchanger
A downhole heat exchanger, also called a borehole heat exchanger, is a heat exchanger installed inside a borehole. It is used to capture or dissipate heat to or from the ground...
s which act as heat exchangers with the ground.
In areas where the shallow ground is too cold to provide comfort directly, it is still warmer than the winter air. The thermal inertia of the shallow ground retains solar energy accumulated in the summertime, and seasonal variations in ground temperature disappear completely below 10m of depth. That heat can be extracted with a geothermal heat pump more efficiently than it can be generated by conventional furnaces. Geothermal heat pumps are economically viable essentially anywhere in the world. One geothermal district heating system at Drake Landing enhances storage of solar energy in the ground to such an extent that no heat pumps are needed.
Geothermal heat pumps
Even in regions without large high temperature geothermal resources, a geothermal heat pump can still provide space heating and air conditioning. Like a refrigerator or air conditioner, these systems use a heat pump to force the transfer of heat from the ground to the application. In theory, heat can be extracted from any source, no matter how cold, but a warmer source allows higher efficiency. A ground-source heat pump uses the shallow ground or ground water (typically starting at 10–12 °C (50–53.6 F)) as a source of heat, thus taking advantage of its seasonally moderate temperatures. In contrast, an air-source heat pump draws heat from the air (colder outside air) and thus requires more energy.Closed loop geothermal heat pumps circulate a carrier fluid (usually a water/antifreeze mix) through pipes buried in the ground. As the fluid circulates underground it absorbs heat from the ground and, on its return, the now warmer fluid passes through the heat pump which uses electricity to extract the heat from the fluid. The re-chilled fluid is sent back into the ground thus continuing the cycle. The heat extracted and that generated by the heat pump appliance as a byproduct is used to heat the house. The addition of the ground heating loop in the energy equation means that more heat is generated than if electricity alone had been used directly for heating.
Switching the direction of heat flow, the same system can be used to circulate the cooled water through the house for cooling in the summer months. The heat is exhausted to the relatively cooler ground (or groundwater) rather than delivering it to the hot outside air as an air conditioner does. As a result, the heat is pumped across a larger temperature difference and this leads to higher efficiency and lower energy use.
This technology makes geothermal heating economically viable in any geographical location. In 2004, an estimated million ground source heat pumps with a total capacity of 15 GW extracted 88 PJ of geothermal energy for space heating. Global geothermal heat pump capacity is growing by 10% annually. Do note that these applicatiuons should all be called ground source heat pumps as the heat has nothing to do with geothermal heat coming from the earth's mantle and core.
History
Hot Springs
Hot Springs may refer to:* Hot Springs, Arkansas** Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas*Hot Springs, California**Hot Springs, Lassen County, California**Hot Springs, Modoc County, California**Hot Springs, Placer County, California...
have been used for bathing at least since Paleolithic times. The oldest known spa is a stone pool on China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
's Mount Li
Mount Li
Mount Li is a mountain located in the northwest of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, China. The mountain is part of the Qinling mountain range and rises to a height of 1302 metres above sea level...
built in the Qin dynasty
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...
in the 3rd century BC, at the same site where the Huaqing Chi palace was later built. In the first century AD, Romans conquered Aquae Sulis
Aquae Sulis
Aquae Sulis was a small town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Bath, located in the English county of Somerset.-Baths and temple complex:...
and used the hot springs there to feed public baths
Thermae
In ancient Rome, thermae and balnea were facilities for bathing...
and underfloor heating
Hypocaust
A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat houses with hot air. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt"...
. The admission fees for these baths probably represents the first commercial use of geothermal power. The world's oldest geothermal district heating system in Chaudes-Aigues
Chaudes-Aigues
Chaudes-Aigues is a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France. It is a spa town, famous for its hot spring waters.-Geography:The commune is situated in the Massif Central in Aubrac...
, France, has been operating since the 14th century. The earliest industrial exploitation began in 1827 with the use of geyser steam to extract boric acid
Boric acid
Boric acid, also called hydrogen borate or boracic acid or orthoboric acid or acidum boricum, is a weak acid of boron often used as an antiseptic, insecticide, flame retardant, as a neutron absorber, and as a precursor of other chemical compounds. It exists in the form of colorless crystals or a...
from volcanic mud in Larderello
Larderello
Larderello is a frazione of the comune of Pomarance, in Tuscany in central Italy. It is a geologically active area, renowned for its geothermal productivity.- Geography :...
, Italy.
In 1892, America's first district heating system in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
was powered directly by geothermal energy, and was soon copied in Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls, Oregon
Klamath Falls is a city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States. Originally called Linkville when George Nurse founded the town in 1867, after the Link River on whose falls this city sat, although no falls currently exist; the name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892...
in 1900. A deep geothermal well was used to heat greenhouses in Boise in 1926, and geysers were used to heat greenhouses in Iceland and Tuscany at about the same time. Charlie Lieb developed the first downhole heat exchanger
Downhole heat exchanger
A downhole heat exchanger, also called a borehole heat exchanger, is a heat exchanger installed inside a borehole. It is used to capture or dissipate heat to or from the ground...
in 1930 to heat his house. Steam and hot water from the geysers began to be used to heat homes in Iceland in 1943.
By this time, Lord Kelvin had already invented the heat pump
Heat pump
A heat pump is a machine or device that effectively "moves" thermal energy from one location called the "source," which is at a lower temperature, to another location called the "sink" or "heat sink", which is at a higher temperature. An air conditioner is a particular type of heat pump, but the...
in 1852, and Heinrich Zoelly
Heinrich Zoelly
Heinrich Zoelly was a Mexican-Swiss engineer. He developed steam turbines and turbine-driven locomotives and patented the geothermal heat pump in 1912.- Life and work :...
had patented the idea of using it to draw heat from the ground in 1912. But it was not until the late 1940s that the geothermal heat pump was successfully implemented. The earliest one was probably Robert C. Webber's home-made 2.2 kW direct-exchange system, but sources disagree as to the exact timeline of his invention. J. Donald Kroeker designed the first commercial geothermal heat pump to heat the Commonwealth Building (Portland, Oregon)
Commonwealth Building (Portland, Oregon)
The Commonwealth Building is a 14-story commercial office tower in Portland, Oregon, United States, located at 421 SW 6th Avenue between Washington and Stark Streets. Designed by architect Pietro Belluschi, it was built between 1944 and 1948 and was originally known as the Equitable Building...
and demonstrated it in 1946. Professor Carl Nielsen of Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
built the first residential open loop version in his home in 1948. The technology became popular in Sweden as a result of the 1973 oil crisis
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
, and has been growing slowly in worldwide acceptance since then. The 1979 development of polybutylene
Polybutylene
Polybutylene is a polyolefin or saturated polymer with the chemical formula n. It should not be confused with polybutene, a low molecular weight oligomer with a different repeat unit....
pipe greatly augmented the heat pump’s economic viability. As of 2004, there are over a million geothermal heat pumps installed worldwide providing 12 GW of thermal capacity. Each year, about 80,000 units are installed in the USA and 27,000 in Sweden.
Economics
Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy that encourages conservation of natural resources. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyUnited States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
, geo-exchange systems save homeowners 30-70 percent in heating costs, and 20-50 percent in cooling costs, compared to conventional systems. Geo-exchange systems also save money because they require much less maintenance. In addition to being highly reliable they are built to last for decades.
Some utilities, such as Kansas City Power and Light, offer special, lower winter rates for geothermal customers, offering even more savings.
Geothermal drilling risks
In geothermal heating projects the underground is penetrated by trenches or drillholes. Projects may cause problems if the geology of the area is poorly understood as with all underground work.In the spring of 2007 an exploratory geothermal drilling operation was conducted to provide geothermal heat to the town hall of Staufen im Breisgau. After initially sinking a few millimeters, a process called subsidence
Subsidence
Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...
, the city center has started to rise gradually causing considerable damage to buildings in the city center, affecting numerous historic houses including the town hall. It is hypothesized that the drilling perforated an anhydrite
Anhydrite
Anhydrite is a mineral – anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium and strontium sulfates, as might be expected from the...
layer bringing high-pressure groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
to come into contact with the anhydrite, which then began to expand. Currently no end to the rising process is in sight. Data from the TerraSAR-X
TerraSAR-X
TerraSAR-X, a German Earth observation satellite, is a joint venture being carried out under a public-private-partnership between the German Aerospace Center DLR and EADS Astrium GmbH; the exclusive commercial exploitation rights are held by the geo-information service provider Infoterra GmbH....
radar satellite before and after the changes confirmed the localised nature of the situation. "A geochemical process called anhydrite
Anhydrite
Anhydrite is a mineral – anhydrous calcium sulfate, CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium and strontium sulfates, as might be expected from the...
swelling has been confirmed as the cause of these uplift
Tectonic uplift
Tectonic uplift is a geological process most often caused by plate tectonics which increases elevation. The opposite of uplift is subsidence, which results in a decrease in elevation. Uplift may be orogenic or isostatic.-Orogenic uplift:...
s. This is a transformation of the mineral anhydrite (anhydrous calcium sulphate) into gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
(hydrous calcium sulphate). A pre-condition for this transformation is that the anhydrite is in contact with water, which is then stored in its crystalline structure."
See also
- Annualized geothermal solar
- District heatingDistrict heatingDistrict heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating...
- Geosolar
- Geothermal (geology)
- Geothermal powerGeothermal powerGeothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
- Geothermal heat pump
- Carnot's theorem (thermodynamics)