Australian Heat Flow Measurements with Regional Contour Maps

Australian continent heat flow data, combining 20 new values with published land and marine data from the area 90-170°E, 0-45°S. The data was used to produce contour maps showing regional variations, with low heat flux (30-60 mW m^-2) in most areas and higher flux (70-100 mW m^-2) in eastern Australia. The dataset is presented by Geoscience Australia Data and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling geothermal energy potential based on regional heat flux values.
• Studying tectonic boundaries and craton definition based on heat flow patterns.
• Correlating heat flow with seismic data like P-wave travel-time residuals and upper-mantle velocity.
• Creating contour maps of heat flux for the Australian region and surrounding marine areas.

Strengths

• Includes 20 new heat-flow values combined with published data.
• Provides specific heat flux ranges for regions like the Canning Basin (40-50 mW m^-2) and Queensland/New South Wales (70-100 mW m^-2).
• Covers a defined geographic area (90-170°E, 0-45°S).

Limitations

• Data distribution is described as not good enough to accurately delineate boundaries of high and low heat-flow regimes.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Combination of 20 new measurements with published land and marine data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 17:35:26.760587; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian continent and surrounding marine area (90-170°E, 0-45°S).