THE CONTEMPORARY EFFECT OF EROSION SEDIMENTATION AND PAST CLIMATE ON THE GEOTHERMAL GRADIENT/

The aim of this paper is to calculate the correction that must be appl ied to the observed geothermal gradient when it is affected by a distu rbance due to the contemporary effects of erosion/sedimentation and pa st climatic changes. This problem is treated by integrating the equati on of heat conduction in a moving homogeneous medium (which accounts f or the erosion/sedimentation process) with the boundary condition that the surface temperature undergoes a sinusoidal variation in time. The solution shows that the whole disturbance in the soil temperature at any depth is the sum of two terms which represent, separately, the eff ects of erosion/sedimentation and that of past climatic changes. The d isturbance can thus. be removed from the geothermal gradient by applyi ng separately the respective corrections.