The most recent heat flow map of the Swiss Molasse Basin dates back to 1995. Since then, several new temperature measurements in boreholes were conducted and, more importantly, geothermal energy became much more important in order to achieve Switzerland’s desired energy transition. Temperature data with a corresponding heat flow map are an important basis for geothermal exploration.
Since project start in 2019, we mainly compiled and analysed temperature data from deep boreholes in the Swiss Molasse Basin area. This analysis provided good constraints on the temperature distribution down to 2 km. These intermediate results will provide a strong basis for the next project stage aiming at establishing an interpolation procedure for the calculation of the steady-state conductive heat flow and finally a new heat flow map of the Swiss Molasse Basin.
In parallel, we collaborate with the Geothermal Energy and Geofluids group of Prof. Martin Saar conducting a pilot research study on the heat flow in the greater Aargau region.
