THERMAL NEAR‐SURFACE EXPRESSION OF SHALLOW GEOLOGICAL FEATURES*

It has been customary in geothermal studies to assume the surface to be an isothermal plane, though difficulties existed to explain the magnitude of thermal anomalies observed in the field under this assumption. Detailed investigations of temperatures at depths between 5 cm and 230 cm show that—after removal of the strong diurnal variations—sizeable anomalies persist right to the surface. Thus, the effective heat transfer (coefficient) at the surface might be lower than commonly assumed.