Geothermics: Heat Flow in the Lithosphere (2nd edition)

Preface to the Second Edition In the light of the success of the first edition, this book has been thoroughly revised, even if its general approach has not been changed. Minor additions and modifi- cations, corrections of a few misprints have been included. Moreover, the book has been enriched with a new chapter on geothermal methods for the inference of past climate changes from the subsurface temperature field. The geothermal method, unlike proxy methods for climate reconstruction, pro- vides a direct assessment of past temperature and can extend the areal range to regions poorly covered with meteorological observations. We show how the ground surface temperature variations can be reconstructed by inverting the borehole temperature and underground thermal data, combined with surface air temperature time series, allowing the inference of the recent climatic change.