Derive an expression of adiabatic temperature

gradient inside the earth.

 CONTINENTAL HEAT FLOW
Heat flow

The computation of continental heat flow from borehole data requires the
implementation of several corrections. An important assumption is that heat flow is
only vertical. Well below the surface the isotherms (surfaces of constant temperature)
are flat lying and the flow of heat (normal to the isotherms) is vertical.

However, the near-surface isotherms adapt to the topography so that the direction of
heat flow is deflected and acquires a horizontal component, while the vertical
temperature gradient is also modified.
 Heat transfer through porous crustal rocks
The transfer of heat through the continental crust takes place not only by
conduction but also by advection. A sediment or rock is composed of mineral
grains closely packed in contact with each other. The pore spaces between the
grains can represent an appreciable fraction of the total volume of a rock sample.
The ability of fluids to flow through porous portion of the crustal rocks enables
them to transmit heat. In this case the process of heat transfer is not by
convection, because the fluid motion is not driven by temperature differences
but by the pressure gradient.
Geological processes affect heat flow
Erosion and deposition
Burial metamorphism
Intrusion metamorphism

Overthrusting
 OCEANIC HEAT FLOW

The average heat flow is higher over young oceanic crust but exhibits a much
greater standard deviation than does that over the older ocean basins. This
decrease of heat flow with increasing age is to be expected if we consider hot
volcanic material rising along the axes of the mid-ocean ridges and plates cooling
as they move away from the spreading centres.
The very scattered heat-flow values measured over young oceanic crust are a
consequence of the hydrothermal circulation of sea water through the crust. Heat
flow is locally high in the vicinity of hot-water vents and low where cold seawater
enters the crust.
Oceanic crust is formed by the intrusion of basaltic magma from below. Contact
with sea water causes rapid cooling of the new crust, and many cracks form in the
lava flows and dykes. Convection of sea water through the cracked crust occurs,
and it is probable that this circulation penetrates through most of the crust,
providing an efficient cooling mechanism.
Newly formed plate moves away from the ridge, and sedimentation occurs. Deep-
sea sediments have a low permeability.
Hydrothermal circulation stops in older crust, when pores and cracks will become
plugged with mineral deposits in it. As a result, hydrothermal circulation will largely
cease. Loss of heat due to hydrothermal circulation is difficult to measure, so heat-flow
estimates for young crust are generally very scattered and also significantly lower than
the theoretical estimates of heat loss.

That heat-flow measurements are generally less than the predicted values for oceanic
lithosphere younger than 65 ± 10 Ma indicates that this is the ‘sealing age’.

As an oceanic plate moves away from the ridge axis and cools, it contracts and thus
increases in density. If we assume the oceanic regions to be compensated, the depth of
the oceans should increase with increasing age (and thus plate density). For any model
of the cooling lithosphere, the expected ocean depth can be calculated simply
Method of measuring oceanic
heat flow and recovering
samples of marine sediments:

(a)a coring device is lowered

by cable to the sea-floor,

(b)when a trigger-weight
contacts the bottom, the corer
falls freely, and
(c)Temperature measurements
are made in the ocean floor and
the sediment-filled corer is
recovered to the surface ship.