Nationwide Heat Flow, Temperature Gradient, and Related Data - SMU Node of the NGDS

Publicly accessible License 

This dataset compiles heat flow and temperature gradient data from over 44,000 wells across the United States, along with more than 6,000 related geothermal exploration resources. Originally assembled prior to 2014 for the now-retired National Geothermal Data System (NGDS), the collection includes curated well data, scanned field notes, temperature-depth curves, publications, maps, and other supporting documents. SMU Geothermal Laboratory contributed two different nationwide heat flow databases to the project. One is based on equilibrium temperature measurements (over 14,000 sites) and the other is based on corrected bottom hole temperature (BHT) data from oil and gas industry wells (over 30,000 sites). In addition, scanned field notes and temperature-depth curves were associated with approximately 6,000 specific sites in the heat flow database. Records were corrected and overlapping sites in the equilibrium heat flow database were linked between the original SMU National database and the UND Global Heat Flow database. New or related sites, which were not previously published because they lacked full heat flow content, are now included as gradient only information along with their detailed temperature data to fill in data gaps. Finally, SMU submitted over 920 scanned publications, reports, and maps suitable for full text searching. The dataset is provided in two flat-structured zip archives: one containing the curated well data and another containing related resources. An Excel index file is provided for each archive, allowing filtering by well name, location, and description. Data files are labeled with state or institutional origin where available.

Citation Formats

TY - DATA AB - This dataset compiles heat flow and temperature gradient data from over 44,000 wells across the United States, along with more than 6,000 related geothermal exploration resources. Originally assembled prior to 2014 for the now-retired National Geothermal Data System (NGDS), the collection includes curated well data, scanned field notes, temperature-depth curves, publications, maps, and other supporting documents. SMU Geothermal Laboratory contributed two different nationwide heat flow databases to the project. One is based on equilibrium temperature measurements (over 14,000 sites) and the other is based on corrected bottom hole temperature (BHT) data from oil and gas industry wells (over 30,000 sites). In addition, scanned field notes and temperature-depth curves were associated with approximately 6,000 specific sites in the heat flow database. Records were corrected and overlapping sites in the equilibrium heat flow database were linked between the original SMU National database and the UND Global Heat Flow database. New or related sites, which were not previously published because they lacked full heat flow content, are now included as gradient only information along with their detailed temperature data to fill in data gaps. Finally, SMU submitted over 920 scanned publications, reports, and maps suitable for full text searching. The dataset is provided in two flat-structured zip archives: one containing the curated well data and another containing related resources. An Excel index file is provided for each archive, allowing filtering by well name, location, and description. Data files are labeled with state or institutional origin where available. AU - Richards, Maria A2 - Chickering Pace, Cathy A3 - Blackwell, David DB - Geothermal Data Repository DP - Open EI | National Laboratory of the Rockies DO - KW - geothermal KW - energy KW - heat flow KW - temperature gradient KW - BHT KW - well data KW - NGDS KW - geothermal exploration KW - thermal conductivity KW - radiogenic heat KW - oil and gas wells KW - geothermal wells KW - subsurface data KW - geological data KW - processed data KW - technical reports KW - publications KW - geothermal mapping KW - NGDS-SMU KW - SMU node LA - English DA - 2014/03/01 PY - 2014 PB - Southern Methodist University T1 - Nationwide Heat Flow, Temperature Gradient, and Related Data - SMU Node of the NGDS UR - https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1704 ER -
Export Citation to RIS
Richards, Maria, et al. Nationwide Heat Flow, Temperature Gradient, and Related Data - SMU Node of the NGDS. Southern Methodist University , 1 March, 2014, Geothermal Data Repository. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1704.
Richards, M., Chickering Pace, C., & Blackwell, D. (2014). Nationwide Heat Flow, Temperature Gradient, and Related Data - SMU Node of the NGDS. [Data set]. Geothermal Data Repository. Southern Methodist University . https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1704
Richards, Maria, Cathy Chickering Pace, and David Blackwell. Nationwide Heat Flow, Temperature Gradient, and Related Data - SMU Node of the NGDS. Southern Methodist University , March, 1, 2014. Distributed by Geothermal Data Repository. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1704
@misc{GDR_Dataset_1704, title = {Nationwide Heat Flow, Temperature Gradient, and Related Data - SMU Node of the NGDS}, author = {Richards, Maria and Chickering Pace, Cathy and Blackwell, David}, abstractNote = {This dataset compiles heat flow and temperature gradient data from over 44,000 wells across the United States, along with more than 6,000 related geothermal exploration resources. Originally assembled prior to 2014 for the now-retired National Geothermal Data System (NGDS), the collection includes curated well data, scanned field notes, temperature-depth curves, publications, maps, and other supporting documents. SMU Geothermal Laboratory contributed two different nationwide heat flow databases to the project. One is based on equilibrium temperature measurements (over 14,000 sites) and the other is based on corrected bottom hole temperature (BHT) data from oil and gas industry wells (over 30,000 sites). In addition, scanned field notes and temperature-depth curves were associated with approximately 6,000 specific sites in the heat flow database. Records were corrected and overlapping sites in the equilibrium heat flow database were linked between the original SMU National database and the UND Global Heat Flow database. New or related sites, which were not previously published because they lacked full heat flow content, are now included as gradient only information along with their detailed temperature data to fill in data gaps. Finally, SMU submitted over 920 scanned publications, reports, and maps suitable for full text searching. The dataset is provided in two flat-structured zip archives: one containing the curated well data and another containing related resources. An Excel index file is provided for each archive, allowing filtering by well name, location, and description. Data files are labeled with state or institutional origin where available.}, url = {https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1704}, year = {2014}, howpublished = {Geothermal Data Repository, Southern Methodist University , https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1704}, note = {Accessed: 2026-03-05} }

Details

Data from Mar 1, 2014

Last updated Dec 8, 2025

Submitted Oct 27, 2025

Organization

Southern Methodist University

Contact

Maria Richards

Authors

Maria Richards

Southern Methodist University

Cathy Chickering Pace

Southern Methodist University

David Blackwell

Southern Methodist University

DOE Project Details

Project Name American Recovery and Reinvestment Award: Geothermal Data Aggregation

Project Lead Arlene Anderson

Project Number EE0002852

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