WorldWide Drilling Resource

28 AUGUST 2022 WorldWide Drilling Resource® “This area is a geothermal freak zone for sure. You have this really old, stable, North Atlantic Craton in the south of Greenland that’s quite cool, and just next to it is the Mid Atlantic Ridge and Iceland with all its volcanic activity; not to mention the influence of the ice sheet. All of this makes for a geothermally weird region, which is really a bit different from the rest of the world. And therefore, important to understand.” Initially, Colgan and his colleagues became interested in geothermal heat flow because of its role in the dynamics of the melting ice sheet. Searching for data from the Greenland area, it quickly became clear that previously collected data was somewhat disorganized. Colgan said although many different groups have collected geothermal data in and around Greenland through the years, they all had their own purposes. For example, gas and oil companies collected data as they attempted to locate gas and oil pockets underground. Other data was collected by permafrost and glaciology researchers. “More or less everybody in geosciences uses heat flow in some sense, but no one has evidently felt the need for compiling a comprehensive overview until now, I guess,” Colgan explained. While trying to locate good locations to retrieve new geothermal heat flow data, Colgan and his team had to find out where data had already been collected. The more they talked to researchers from other research fields, the more untapped data was uncovered. “At first, we were looking for just subglacial heat flow data, then we got into data from the subaerial or tundra areas, and at last we thought ‘well, we might as well do the ocean and cover the whole region’,” he added. Thus, it turned into an endeavor expanding from the original team of GEUS glaciologists into a range of researchers from different disciplines located in 16 institutions in eight different countries. The joint effort resulted in the new model, which is the first to include all available offshore and onshore data in Greenland. To enhance data coverage, the team is currently investigating the possibility of acquiring a heat probe to drop off the back of research vessels going on fieldwork in the Arctic. Editor’s Note: In between our print issues, the WWDR Team prepares an electronic newsletter called E-News Flash by WorldWide Drilling Resource®. This newsletter is filled with articles not included in our print issue. Based on readership, this was the most popular article of the month. Get in on the action and subscribe today at: www.worldwidedrillingresource.com Mapping cont’d from page 16.

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