Heat flow and temperature-depth curves throughout Alaska: finding regions for future geothermal exploration

The objective of this research is to contribute to the understanding of the thermal regime of Alaska and its relationship to geology, regional tectonics, and to suggest potential sites for future geothermal energy production. New heat flow data were collected and are combined with existing published and unpublished data, although large sections of Alaska still lack data. Fault traces were implemented into the heat flow contouring as an additional gridding constraint, to incorporate both heat flow measurements and geology. New heat flow data supported the use of geologic trends in the heat flow mapping procedure, and a heat flow map of Alaska was produced with this added constraint. The multi-input contouring strategy allows production of a map with a regional interpretation of heat flow, in addition to site-specific heat flow and thermal model interpretations in areas with sufficient data density. Utilizing the new heat flow map, temperature-at-depth curves were created for example areas. Temperature-at-depth curves are calculated to 10 km depth for the areas of Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, the Alaska Peninsula, Bristol Bay, and the Copper River Basin. The temperatures-at-depth predicted near the population centers of Anchorage and Juneau are relatively low, limiting the geothermal resource potential. The Fairbanks area temperature estimates are near conventional power production temperatures (150 degrees C) between 3.5 and 4 km. All data areas, except at Juneau, have temperatures sufficient for low temperature geothermal applications (40 degrees C) by 2 km. A high heat flow region exists within the Aleutian Volcanic Arc, although new data show heat flow variations from 59 to 120 mW m(-2), so individual geothermal resources within the arc will be irregularly located.