Hosted by the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, the “7^th International Meeting on Heat Flow and the Thermal Structure of the Lithosphere” (the Cermak7 Meeting) was held in Potsdam from 20^th to 22^th June.

Two years after a first attempt to host the conference was canceled due to the beginning of the corona pandemic, the meeting now provided a unique opportunity for researchers, students, and industry experts from across the world to meet in person and discuss recent results and developments in heat-flow determination and interpretation, experimental petrophysics, geothermal exploration, and lithosphere studies. For understanding thermal transport processes in these research fields, heat flow is an essential parameter. More than 60 researchers from 19 countries attended the meeting, which is the largest specialist conference on heat-flow techniques, data and its interpretation.

After the two-day conference, a one-day workshop for the revision of the global heat-flow database was held. A major achievement of the workshop was the finalization of a quality scheme for the tens of thousands of data incorporated in the global heat-flow database. The in-person workshop relied on a series of collaborative online workshops that started in November 2021.

Susanne Buiter, GFZ’s Scientific Executive Director, and opening speaker:

“The GFZ supports the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC) and the World Heat Flow Database Project, because data builds our knowledge of the Earth’s subsurface and I cannot stress enough how important organized and consistent databases are.”

Sven Fuchs, custodian of the Global Heat Flow Database and Chair of the Local Organizing Committee:

“We look back on a very successful Cermak7 meeting and we are very pleased with the outcome, which both strengthened the heat-flow community and set plans and collaborations for the next couple of years.”

Evening event in the Museum Barberini: Connecting Earth Science and Art

During the conference, an evening event took place in the Museum Barberini, in which Ortrud Westheider, director of the Museum Barberini, introduced the audience to the visualization of climate and weather phenomena in impressionism painting and thus illustrated possibilities to connect earth science and art (Current exhibition: “The Shape of Freedom”).

Organizers:

• GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
• International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC) of IASPEI/IUGG.
• International Lithosphere Program (ILP) of IUGG/IUGS
• University of Potsdam

Support:

• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
• The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG)
• Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG)
• Thermtest / C3 Prozess und Analysentechnik
• Bundesverband Geothermie
• Geo.X

Further links

• Meeting homepage: http://cermak7.ihfc-iugg.org
• World Heat Flow Database Project http://heatflow.world/project
• Museum Barberini: https://www.museum-barberini.de

Scientific contact:

Dr. Sven Fuchs
Head of a Working Group in Section 4.8 Geoenergy
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Telegrafenberg
14473 Potsdam
Phone: +49 331 288-1713
Email: sven.fuchs@gfz-potsdam.de