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Three-dimensional temperature model of the Great Basin, USA (ver. 1.1, November 2024)

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

As part of the periodic update of the geothermal energy assessments for the USA (e.g., last update by Williams and others, 2008), a new three-dimensional temperature map has been constructed for the Great Basin, USA. Williams and DeAngelo (2011) identified uncertainty in estimates of conductive heat flow near land surface as the largest contributor to uncertainty in previously published temperature maps. The new temperature maps incorporate new conductive heat flow estimates developed by DeAngelo and others (2023). Predicted temperatures at depth are compared with representative measurements (for conductively dominated conditions), showing good agreement under relatively simple uniform conditions. Inputs included radiogenic heat production for all layers of 1.89 μW/m3, effective bulk thermal conductivity of 2.7 W/m/°C for all rocks underlying sedimentary basins, and a previously published (Williams and DeAngelo, 2011) empirically driven estimate of increasing thermal conductivity with depth in sedimentary sequences. The resulting three-dimensional temperature model is presented in this data release. Version 1.1 corrects a minor coding error for generation of the thermal profiles. For version 1.0, the code had the following error: thermal conductivity at the reference temperature (zero) was allowed to vary in equation (3) of the documentation, but thermal conductivity was held constant value of 2.7 in the computation of the coefficient “b” (see paragraph following equation (3)). The new 3D temperature model was re-verified using the procedure described in the manuscript (i.e., Fig 7 was reconstructed and checked to ensure no bias or regionalization). Files that were updated for version 1.1 end with '_v1_1.'

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-65b3fe07d34e36a390458ce9
Data Last Modified 2024-12-06T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id f2cc4acb-4039-4af4-8d13-1f357b36d215
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -121.7061, 34.8850, -110.6086, 43.5778
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 4e72a58d0b5c572f061444fde6ecfe62b063740f97deeabf95b1f8965731c634
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -121.7061, 34.8850, -121.7061, 43.5778, -110.6086, 43.5778, -110.6086, 34.8850, -121.7061, 34.8850}

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