Negraru, Petru T.¹, David D Blackwell¹, Kamil Erkan¹
(1) Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX

ABSTRACT: Heat Flow in Texas

New heat flow values for several holes in Texas are reported. In north-central Texas, several holes show heat flow values between 50 – 60 mW/m². In east central Texas Bullard plots were used to determine heat flow values for a set of eight wells with temperature logs from 1930. They show a remarkable uniformity, with heat flow values between 50 - 60 mW/m². Two holes in the Palo Duro Basin in the Texas Panhandle show the same heat flow value, within the error range of published values for the Delaware and Midland Basins. The exception of this uniformity is a narrow band of holes in central Texas that have heat flow over 60 mW/m². Thus the overall heat flow in Texas is between 50-60 mW/m². These high values are likely to be a reflection of changes in underlying basement or fluid flow along the Balconies fault zone or refraction of heat flow lines due to the geometry of Ouachita overthrust. The unusually low heat flow recorded in a well in south Texas (Lackland AFB, 34 mW/m²) is not interpreted as the normal heat flow, but rather as a water recharge area where low gradients are encountered. Both the low and high flow areas correlate with the anomalous gradient areas reported in geothermal studies in the 1970’s.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90026©2004 AAPG Annual Meeting, Dallas, Texas, April 18-21, 2004.