Thermal regime of the earth’s lithosphere and the mantle: geothermal studies at IPE RAS

Abstract

The paper is devoted to a historical retrospective of the development of geothermal research in the former Soviet Union. The detailed history of the Laboratory of geothermics at the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPE RAS) from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s when a full range of geothermal studies were conducted by the laboratory is presented. The main results with the special focus on the world-level achievements made by IPE RAS in this field are outlined. The second part of the paper addresses the key recent results including the theoretical studies of heat and mass transfer and numerical modeling of mantle convection.