Re: What is the effect of the internal temp of the earth on the external tem

Hello Charlotte!

The geothermal heat flow is - on average - about 0.075 W/m^2. You would
need to collect all the heat, coming from the deep underground, over 1000
square meters in ordre to light one 75 W bulb.  Is that a lot or a little?

Let us compare to other sources of heat - namely the Sun. One commercial
solar collector states that their collectors produce 740 W/m^2. That sounds
a lot - but it is valid for sunshine hours only. On average half the time
is night, and on average there will be clouds about 50% of the time, so the
average efficiency of such a solar collector woul dbe one quarter of the
above number, or 185 W/m^2. That is almost 2500 more energy for the same
area as geothermal heat.

So your Dad is right - geothermal heat does not contribute much to our climate.

Here is a link to a page with more information about geothermal heat flow:

 http://geophysics.ou.edu/geomechanics/notes/heatflow/global_heat_flow.htm