Heat flow at arrival heights, Ross Island, Antarctica

Abstract

Abstract A study of temperature measurements taken over an interval of 2.4 years in a 7.6 m deep hole on Hut Point Peninsula (Ross Island) has shown that the vertical heat flux is 164 α 60 mW/m 2 (4 × 10 −6 cal/cm 2 s) which is about 2.5 times greater than the world average heat flux. The result has been obtained by fitting simultaneously all data to a series of harmonic functions using a least‐squares method of curve fitting. The thermal effect of Quaternary basaltic extrusions which cover the peninsula is too small to explain the observed flux.