Geothermal is related to energy and may refer to: *

Geothermal energy Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the crust (geology), crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for m ...

, useful energy generated and stored in the Earth *

Geothermal activity Geothermal activity is a group of natural heat transfer processes, occurring on Earth's surface, caused by the presence of excess heat in the subsurface of the affected area, usually caused by the presence of an igneous intrusion underground. Geot ...

, the range of natural phenomena at or near the surface, associated with release of the Earth's internal heat. *

Earth's internal heat budget Earth's internal heat budget is fundamental to the thermal history of the Earth. The flow of heat from Earth's interior to the surface is estimated at 47±2 terawatts (TW) and comes from two main sources in roughly equal amounts: the ''radioge ...

, accounting of the flows of energy at and below the surface of the planet's crust *

Geothermal gradient Geothermal gradient is the rate of change in temperature with respect to increasing depth in Earth's interior. As a general rule, the crust temperature rises with depth due to the heat flow from the much hotter mantle; away from tectonic plat ...

, down which heat flows within the Earth *

Geothermal exploration Geothermal exploration is the exploration of the subsurface in search of viable active geothermal regions with the goal of building a geothermal power plant, where hot fluids drive turbines to create electricity. Exploration methods include a bro ...

, the search for commercially usable geothermal energy

Uses of geothermal energy

Earth sheltering An earth shelter, also called an earth house, earth-bermed house, earth-sheltered house, earth-covered house, or underground house, is a structure (usually a house) with earth (soil) against the walls and/or on the roof, or that is entirely burie ...

, constructing a building into a hill side or Earth berm to reduce heating and cooling requirements *

Earth cooling tubes A ground-coupled heat exchanger is an underground heat exchanger that can capture heat from and/or dissipate heat to the ground. They use the Earth's near constant subterranean temperature to warm or cool air or other fluids for residential, agri ...

, using ambient Earth temperature to cool and dehumidify air *

Geothermal desalination Geothermal desalination refers to the process of using geothermal energy to power the process of converting salt water to fresh water. The process is considered economically efficient, and while overall environmental impact is uncertain, it has pot ...

, the production of fresh water using heat energy extracted from underground rocks *

Geothermal heating Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for some heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ o ...

, methods of heating and cooling a building using underground heat *

Geothermal power Geothermal power is electricity generation, electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation i ...

, electricity generated from naturally occurring geological heat sources *

Ground source heat pump A ground source heat pump (also geothermal heat pump) is a heating/cooling system for buildings that use a type of heat pump to transfer heat to or from the ground, taking advantage of the relative constancy of temperatures of the earth through t ...

, a device used for heating and cooling using the earth as a heat reservoir **

Direct exchange geothermal heat pump A direct exchange (DX) geothermal heat pump is a type of ground source heat pump in which refrigerant circulates through copper tubing placed in the ground unlike other ground source heat pumps where refrigerant is restricted to the heat pump itse ...

, a method of heating and cooling with the energy of the earth using direct exchange of heat *

Hot dry rock geothermal energy Hot dry rock (HDR) is an extremely abundant source of geothermal energy that is difficult to access. A vast store of thermal energy is contained within hot – but essentially dry and impervious crystalline basement rocks found almost everywhere d ...

, heating water in hot deep rock {{disambig