Can Geothermal Heat or Volcanoes Explain Current Warming?
Map of Geothermal Heat Flux from Davies 2010 Sometimes I here people make claims that the globe is warming because of some aspect of the Earth's geology from the Earths' core or mantle, such as increase in geothermal heat from the Earth's interior or an increase in atmospheric CO2 coming from volcanic activity. Geothermal Heat Flux Estimates for the surface heat flow from the Earth's interior is pretty well constrained. Two recent estimates I've seen are 46 ± 3 TW[1] and 47 ± 2 TW[2]. This would count any geothermal heat from the Earths' interior, including volcanic activity, ocean ridges, subduction zones, etc. With this figure we can account for how much geothermal heat contributes to the Earth's surface temperature. Since the Earth has a surface area of 5.1*10^14 m^2, the surface heat flux from the Earth's interior is Fi = 0.09 W/m^2. The total surface heat flux is determined by the Earths' surface temperature, and if we use a standard estimate of...