Estimating heat flow from an unsteady temperature log of submarine borehole BDP-98 (Lake Baikal)

We have applied the method of one temperature log suggested by Kutasov in 1987 to process an unsteady temperature log of the 674 m deep submarine borehole BDP-98-2 (Akademichesky Ridge, Lake Baikal) and found it suitable to reconstruct the primary steady thermal gradient not disturbed by drilling. The steady gradient we derived using a special formalism, with reference to drilling conditions and measured thermal properties of sediments, was 63 mK/m, more than two times the unsteady gradient at different depths. Heat flow calculated with this gradient and a mean thermal conductivity of 1.1 W/(m·K) was 70 mW/m², which is consistent with earlier geothermal data from the same area. Thus, the one-log procedure is a useful tool to predict the original undisturbed thermal gradients and estimate approximate heat flows if a single unsteady temperature log is available.