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Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology & Hydrogeology

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Regional distribution of ground temperature in the Chalk aquifer of London, UK

¹ School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
² Capita Symonds, Devonshire Green House, 14 Fitzwilliam Street, Sheffield S1 4JL, UK
³ Holymoor Consultancy Ltd., 8 Heaton Street, Chesterfield S40 3AQ, UK
⁴ Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research, Devonshire Building University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
⁵ Environment Agency, Kings Meadow House, Kings Meadow Road, Reading RG1 8DQ, UK
⁶ 4 Hilltop Road, Caversham, Reading RG4 7HR, UK

Correspondence: ^* Corresponding author (e-mail: david{at}holymoor.co.uk)

The distribution of subsurface temperature beneath London (with emphasis on the depth interval between 60 and 100 m below ground level) has been estimated from fluid temperature logs run in boreholes and water wells during the 1980s to the 2000s. Although the temperature distribution in the Lea Valley–New River area may have been disturbed as a result of artificial recharge–abstraction trials and operation, one can elsewhere identify a clear trend of increasing temperature from east (<11 °C) to SW (>15 °C). The observed pattern is speculatively explained by: (1) the thick Tertiary sequence and low transmissivity of the Chalk in the SW resulting in a temperature at depth compatible with that expected from conduction of the prevailing geothermal flux; (2) recharge of cooler water through Chalk–Basal Sands subcrop and down-dip towards abstraction centres in central London potentially modifying the geothermal gradient via advective processes.

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