scholarly journals Mars Regolith Properties as Constrained from HP3 Mole Operations and Thermal Measurements

Author(s):  
Tilman Spohn ◽  
Matthias Grott ◽  
Nils Müller ◽  
Jörg Knollenberg ◽  
Christian Krause ◽  
...  

<p>The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package HP<sup>3</sup> onboard the Nasa InSight mission has been on the surface of Mars for more than one Earth year. The instrument's primary goal is to measure Mars' surface heat flow through measuring the geothermal gradient and the thermal condunctivity at depths between 3 and 5m. To get to depth, the package includes a penetrator nicknamed the "Mole"  equipped with sensors to precisely measure the thermal conductivity. The Mole tows a tether with printed temperature sensors;  a device to measure the length of the tether towed and a tiltmeter will help to track the path of the Mole and the tether. Progress of the Mole has been stymied by difficulties of digging into the regolith. The Mole functions as a mechanical diode with an internal hammer mechanism that drives it forward. Recoil is balanced mostly by internal masses but a remaining 3 to 5N has to be absorbed by hull friction. The Mole was designed to work in cohesionless sand but at the InSight landing a cohesive duricrust of at least 7cm thickness but possibly 20cm thick was found. Upon initial penetration to 35cm depth, the Mole punched a hole about 6cm wide and 7cm deep into the duricrust, leaving more than a fourth of its length without hull friction.  It is widely agreed that the lack of friction is the reason for the failure to penetrate further. The HP<sup>3</sup> team has since used the robotic arm with its scoop to pin the Mole to the wall of the hole and helped it penetrate further to almost 40cm. The initial penetration rate of the Mole has been used to estimate a penetration resistance of 300kPa. Attempts to crush the duricrust a few cm away from the pit have been unsuccessful from which a lower bound to the compressive strength of 350kPa is estimated.  Analysis of the slope of the steep walls of the hole gave a lower bound to cohesion of 10kPa. As for thermal properties, a measurement of the thermal conductivity of the regolith with the Mole thermal sensors resulted in 0.045 Wm<sup>-1</sup>K<sup>-1</sup>.  The value is considerably uncertain because part of the Mole having contact to air.  The HP³ radiometer has been monitoring the surface temperature next to the lander and a thermal model fitted to the data give a regolith thermal inertia of  189 ± 10 J m<sup>-2</sup> K<sup>-1</sup> s<sup>-1/2</sup>. With best estimates of heat capacity and density, this corresponds to a thermal conductivity of 0.045 Wm<sup>-1</sup>K<sup>-1</sup>, consistent with the above measurement using the Mole. The data can be fitted well with a homogeneous soil model, but observations of Phobos eclipses in March 2019 indicate that there possibly is a thin top layer of lower thermal conductivity. A model with a top 5 mm layer of 0.02 Wm-1K-1 above a half-space of 0.05 Wm-1K-1 matches the amplitudes of both the diurnal and eclipse temperature curves. Another set of eclipses will occur in April 2020.</p><p> </p>

Author(s):  
Laurențiu Asimopolos ◽  
Natalia-Silvia Asimopoli

Thermal methods consist of measuring thermal gradient and satellite data, which can be used to determine the Earth's surface temperature and thermal inertia of surficial materials, of thermal infrared radiation emitted at the Earth's surface. Thermal gradient measuring, with a knowledge of the thermal conductivity provides a measure of heat flow. Conditions that may increase or decrease and heat flow are influenced by hydrologic, topographic factors and anomalous thermal conductivity. Also, oxidation of sulphide bodies in-place or on waste deposits, if sufficiently rapid, can generate thermal anomalies, which can provide a measure of the amount of metal being released to the environment. The geothermal gradient on the territory of Romania, the increase of the temperature with the depth, has an average value of 2.5°-3°C/100m, which corresponds to a temperature of 100° C at 3000 m deep. There are many areas where the value of the geothermal gradient differs considerably from this average. For example, in areas where the rock plate suffered rapid dips and the basin was filled with sediment "very young "from a geological point of view, the geothermal gradient may be less than 1° C/100m. On the other hand, in other geothermal areas the gradient exceeds much this average. These areas are true underground thermal reservoirs of potentially high geothermal energy which under certain favourable conditions can be exploited to serve heating installations and domestic hot water systems. The geothermal prospecting for the entire territory of Romania, carried out by temperature measurements allowed the development of geothermal maps, highlighting the temperature distribution at different depths. Geophysical data obtained through various methods and geophysical modelling provide generalized and non-unique solutions to the geometry of underground geological relations as well as to the physical characteristics of different formations. The non-uniqueness of these models (solutions to the direct problem) arises from the impossibility of knowing the boundary conditions between different strata, which together with the propagation equations of the different fields (depending on the geophysical method used for the investigation of the basement) form the systems that offer the solutions of the model


Geophysics ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 707-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave Deming ◽  
David S. Chapman

The present day temperature field in a sedimentary basin is a constraint on the maturation of hydro‐carbons; this temperature field may be estimated by inverting corrected bottom‐hole temperature (BHT) data. Thirty‐two BHTs from the Pineview oil field are corrected for drilling disturbances by a Horner plot and inverted for the geothermal gradient in nine formations. Both least‐squares [Formula: see text] norm and uniform [Formula: see text] norm inversions are used; the [Formula: see text] norm is found to be more robust for the Pineview data. The inversion removes random error from the corrected BHT data by partitioning scatter between noise associated with the BHT measurement and correction processes and local variations in the geothermal gradient. Three‐hundred thermal‐conductivity and density measurements on drill cuttings are used, together with formation density logs, to estimate the in situ thermal conductivity of six of the nine formations. The thermal‐conductivity estimates are used in a finite‐element model to evaluate 2-D conductive heat refraction and, for a series of inversions of synthetic data, to assess the influence of systematic and random noise on the inversion results. A temperature‐anomaly map illustrates that a temperature field calculated by a forward application of the inversion results has less error than any single corrected BHT. Mean background heat flow at Pineview is found to be [Formula: see text] (±13 percent), but is locally higher [Formula: see text] due to heat refraction. The BHT inversion (1) is limited by systematic noise or model error, (2) achieves excellent resolution of a temperature field although resolution of individual formation gradients may be poor, and (3) generally cannot detect lateral variations in heat flow unless thermal‐conductivity structure is constrained.


1944 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 984-993
Author(s):  
Ross E. Morris ◽  
Joseph W. Hollister ◽  
Paul A. Mallard

Abstract Information on the relative rates of cure of GR-S stocks and similar Hevea stocks in thick sections is of interest to many rubber manufacturers. Since curing conditions for thick articles from Hevea stocks have been established, they would like to know how these conditions must be altered when GR-S stocks are used in the same applications. They could develop a GR-S stock with the same rate of cure as the Hevea stock which it replaces according to laboratory tests on comparatively thin sheets, but this agreement does not mean necessarily that thick sections cure at the same rate. The respective rates of heat flow through the rubbers must be considered. Only if the rates of heat flow as well as the curing rates of thin sections are in agreement, will the curing rates of the thick sections be equal. Juve and Garvey found that GR-S tread stocks cure faster in the center of thick sections than similar Hevea tread stocks. They were unable to explain this behavior because, according to their measurements, the thermal conductivity of the GR-S tread stock was less, and its specific heat greater than, the corresponding values for the Hevea tread stock. They concluded that the difference mav be due to an exothermic reaction.


2021 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 159-183
Author(s):  
Mazlan Madon ◽  
◽  
John Jong ◽  

An update of the geothermal gradient and heat flow maps for offshore Malaysia based on oil and gas industry data is long overdue. In this article we present an update based on available data and information compiled from PETRONAS and operator archives. More than 600 new datapoints calculated from bottom-hole temperature (BHT) data from oil and gas wells were added to the compilation, along with 165 datapoints from heat flow probe measurements at the seabed in the deep-water areas off Sarawak and Sabah. The heat flow probe surveys also provided direct measurements of seabed sediment thermal conductivity. For the calculation of heat flows from the BHT-based temperature gradients, empirical relationships between sediment thermal conductivity and burial depth were derived from thermal conductivity measurements of core samples in oil/gas wells (in the Malay Basin) and from ODP and IODP drillholes (as analogues for Sarawak and Sabah basins). The results of this study further enhanced our insights into the similarities and differences between the various basins and their relationships to tectonic settings. The Malay Basin has relatively high geothermal gradients (average ~47 °C/km). Higher gradients in the basin centre are attributed to crustal thinning due to extension. The Sarawak Basin has similar above-average geothermal gradients (~45 °C/km), whereas the Baram Delta area and the Sabah Shelf have considerably lower gradients (~29 to ~34 °C/km). These differences are attributed to the underlying tectonic settings; the Sarawak Shelf, like the Malay Basin, is underlain by an extensional terrane, whereas the Sabah Basin and Baram Delta east of the West Baram Line are underlain by a former collisional margin (between Dangerous Grounds rifted terrane and Sabah). The deep-water areas off Sarawak and Sabah (North Luconia and Sabah Platform) show relatively high geothermal gradients overall, averaging 80 °C/km in North Luconia and 87 °C/km in the Sabah Platform. The higher heat flows in the deep-water areas are consistent with the region being underlain by extended continental terrane of the South China Sea margin. From the thermal conductivity models established in this study, the average heat flows are: Malay Basin (92 mW/m2), Sarawak Shelf (95 mW/m2) and Sabah Shelf (79 mW/m2). In addition, the average heat flows for the deep-water areas are as follows: Sabah deep-water fold-thrust belt (66 mW/m2), Sabah Trough (42 mW/m2), Sabah Platform (63 mW/m2) and North Luconia (60 mW/m2).


Twenty-four measurements of the heat flow through the ocean floor were made in the Indian Ocean and three in the Red Sea. A critical analysis of the effects of fluctuations of bottom-water temperature on the geothermal gradient in the Red Sea shows that these fluctuations do not invalidate the measurements of heat flow. The mean value for the Gulf of Aden (this includes five previous measurements) is 3.89 + 0.49 /tcal cm -2 s -1 . This high value, combined with the shape of a profile across the Gulf, suggests a region of unusually high temperature at a depth of less than 10 km below the bottom. The seventeen heat flow measurements made by R.R.S. Discovery and R. V. Vema between the African coast and the Seychelles show little variation about a mean value of 1.17 /tcal cm -2 s -1 . The comparison of these observations and the deep structure, as determined by a series of seismic lines, shows a constant heat flow across the continental margin. The author is indebted to Mr R. Belderson of the National Institute of Oceanography for a brief description of the cores taken on the cruise.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 1114-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Guo ◽  
Yong Qin ◽  
Lingling Lu

Geothermal fields in coal-bearing strata significantly influence coal mining and coalbed methane accumulation and development. Based on temperature data from 135 coalfield exploration boreholes and thermophysical tests of 43 rock and coal samples from the Upper Permian coal-bearing strata of the Bide-Santang basin in western Guizhou, South China, the distribution of terrestrial heat flow and the geothermal gradient in the study area are revealed, and the geological controls are analysed. The results show that the thermal conductivity of the coal-bearing strata ranges from 0.357 to 3.878 W (m K)−1 and averages 1.962 W (m K)−1. Thermal conductivity is controlled by lithology and burial depth. Thermal conductivity progressively increases for the following lithologies: coal, mudstone, siltstone, fine sandstone, and limestone. For the same lithology, the thermal conductivity increases with the burial depth. The present geothermal gradient ranges from 15.5 to 30.3°C km−1 and averages 23.5°C km−1; the terrestrial heat flow ranges from 46.94 to 69.44 mW m−2 and averages 57.55 mW m−2. These values are lower than the averages for South China, indicating the relative tectonic stability of the study area. The spatial distribution of the terrestrial heat flow and geothermal gradient is consistent with the main structural orientation, indicating that the geothermal field distribution is tectonically controlled at the macro-scale. This distribution is also controlled by active groundwater, which reduces the terrestrial heat flow and geotemperature. The high geothermal gradient in the shallow strata (<200 m) is mainly caused by the low thermal conductivity of the unconsolidated sedimentary cover. The gas content of the coal seam is positively correlated with terrestrial heat flow, indicating that inherited palaeogeothermal heat flow from when coalbed methane was generated in large quantities during the Yanshanian period due to intense magmatic activity.


Geophysics ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
David S. Chapman ◽  
T. H. Keho ◽  
Michael S. Bauer ◽  
M. Dane Picard

The thermal resistance (or Bullard) method is used to judge the utility of petroleum well bottom‐hole temperature data in determining surface heat flow and subsurface temperature patterns in a sedimentary basin. Thermal resistance, defined as the quotient of a depth parameter Δz and thermal conductivity k, governs subsurface temperatures as follows: [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is the temperature at depth z=B, [Formula: see text] is the surface temperature, [Formula: see text] is surface heat flow, and the thermal resistance (Δz/k) is summed for all rock units between the surface and depth B. In practice, bottom‐hole and surface temperatures are combined with a measured or estimated thermal conductivity profile to determine the surface heat flow [Formula: see text] which, in turn, is used for all consequent subsurface temperature computations. The method has been applied to the Tertiary Uinta Basin, northeastern Utah, a basin of intermediate geologic complexity—simple structure but complex facies relationships—where considerable well data are available. Bottom‐hole temperatures were obtained for 97 selected wells where multiple well logs permitted correction of temperatures for drilling effects. Thermal conductivity values, determined for 852 samples from 5 representative wells varying in depth from 670 to 5180 m, together with available geologic data were used to produce conductivity maps for each formation. These maps show intraformational variations across the basin that are associated with lateral facies changes. Formation thicknesses needed for the thermal resistance summation were obtained by utilizing approximately 2000 wells in the WEXPRO Petroleum Information file. Computations were facilitated by describing all formation contacts as fourth‐order polynomial surfaces. Average geothermal gradient and heat flow for the Uinta Basin are [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively. Heat flow appears to decrease systematically from 65 to [Formula: see text] from the Duchesne River northward toward the south flank of the Uinta Mountains. This decrease may be the result of refraction of heat into the highly conductive quartzose Precambrian Uinta Mountain Group. More likely, however, it is related to groundwater recharge in late Paleozoic and Mesozoic sandstone and limestone beds that flank the south side of the Uintas. Heat flow values determined for the southeast portion of the basin show some scatter about a mean value of [Formula: see text] but no systematic variation.


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