Thermal conductivity of basalt between 225 and 290 K

Abstract

Thermal conductivity of natural rock is only well characterized for temperatures above 273 K, i.e., at typical Earth values. In planetary science, there is a requirement to explore the thermal characteristics of rock at temperatures below 273 K, for which thermal conductivity data are sparse or contested. Here, we present empirical data for a basalt showing thermal conductivity ranging from 2.71 ± 0.09 W m−1 K−1 at 224.4 K, to 2.63 ± 0.05 W m−1 K−1 at 288.8 K. Previous work reports much lower values in this range, which may be due to the fragmented nature of the previous research, the use of powdered samples for some data, and the effect of porosity. The high-temperature thermal conductivity laws of Sass et al. (1992) and Haenel and Zoth (1973) can be robustly extrapolated to cover the temperature range of our data.