Collett, T.S., Bird, K.J., and Magoon, L.B., 1993, Subsurface temperatures and geothermal gradients on the North Slope of Alaska: Cold Regions Science and Technology, v. 21, no. 3, p. 275-293.
On the North Slope of Alaska, geothermal gradient data are available from high-resolution, equilibrated well-bore surveys and from estimates based on well-log identification of the base of ice-bearing permafrost. A total of 46 North Slope wells, considered to be in or near thermal equilibrium, have been surveyed with high-resolution temperatures devices and geothermal gradients can be interpreted directly from these recorded temperature profiles. To augment the limited North Slope temperature data base, a new method of evaluating local geothermal gradients has been developed. In this method, a series of well-log picks for the base of the ice-bearing permafrost from 102 wells have been used, along with regional temperature constants derived from the high-resolution stabilized well-bore temperature surveys, to project geothermal gradients. Geothermal gradients calculated from the high-resolution temperature surveys generally agree with those projected from known ice-bearing permafrost depths over most of the North Slope. Values in the ice-bearing permafrost range from ? 1.5°C100 m in the Prudhoe Bay area to ? 4.5?C100 m in the east-central portion of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Geothermal gradients below the ice-bearing permafrost sequence range from ? 1.6°C100 m to ? 5.2°C100 m.
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