The observed heat flux from the Earth is created mainly by the heat released due to radioactive decay, secular cooling of the Earth, and solidification of the growing inner core. The structure of convective flows and, accordingly, the geodynamic manifestations of convection depend on the proportion in which the mantle is heated from below by the flux from the core and from the inside by internal heat sources. For a long time, the heat flux from the core was estimated under the assumption that almost all of it is carried to the surface by plumes in hot spots. However, this leads to an imbalance and a deficit in the total heat of the Earth. In this paper, the sources of the Earth's heat are analyzed and a heat balance consistent with the available set of observational data is presented. The distribution of the heat flux density at the boundary with the core and on the surface is calculated, and it is shown that plumes carry to the surface only a part of the heat coming from the core even in the simplest convection model with constant viscosity.
展开▼
