44 terawatts (44 trillion watts) of heat continually flow from Earth's interior into space.
Geologists have used temperature measurements from more than 20,000 boreholes around the world to estimate that some 44 terawatts (44 trillion watts) of heat continually flow from Earth's interior into space.
Radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium in Earth's crust and mantle is a principal source.
But recent studies of anti-neutrino emissions reveal with 97 percent certainty that radioactive decay supplies only about half the Earth's heat.
Other sources – open to conjecture at this time – must account for the rest. In truth, scientists don't yet know.
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