Useless knowledge time! Iceland is the only landmass is the world that is on a divergent tectonic boundary, most other divergent boundaries occur under the ocean. That’s why you have geysers and lava fields in Iceland, the earths crust is relatively thin because it is being pulled apart.
Due to this, you have a very high geothermal gradient meaning you don’t have to dig very deep to start seeing higher temperatures. So geothermal works extremely well and is very efficient, because the earth is hot at shallow depths.
When people do this in the US, it gets really expensive really quick because you have to drill a lot deeper to reach higher temps and will still probably not get as hot as a shallow well in Iceland making it less efficient. This is why typically only wealthy people in the US have heated driveways and floors.
Edit: technically it’s not the only divergent boundary that exists on a continental landmass as others have pointed out (East African rift being another big one?), but they’re still rare and the one in Iceland is one of the majors
TooShiftyForYou on May 31st, 2018 at 23:16 UTC »
This leads to some interesting melting patterns.
Pinhead___Larry on May 31st, 2018 at 23:35 UTC »
Useless knowledge time! Iceland is the only landmass is the world that is on a divergent tectonic boundary, most other divergent boundaries occur under the ocean. That’s why you have geysers and lava fields in Iceland, the earths crust is relatively thin because it is being pulled apart.
Due to this, you have a very high geothermal gradient meaning you don’t have to dig very deep to start seeing higher temperatures. So geothermal works extremely well and is very efficient, because the earth is hot at shallow depths.
When people do this in the US, it gets really expensive really quick because you have to drill a lot deeper to reach higher temps and will still probably not get as hot as a shallow well in Iceland making it less efficient. This is why typically only wealthy people in the US have heated driveways and floors.
Edit: technically it’s not the only divergent boundary that exists on a continental landmass as others have pointed out (East African rift being another big one?), but they’re still rare and the one in Iceland is one of the majors
eve-dude on June 1st, 2018 at 00:45 UTC »
You can do that when hot water is free.