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LITHOEN

Geological process

Radiogenic heating

Heat produced inside the Earth by the decay of long-lived radioactive isotopes, principally uranium, thorium and potassium. It is one of two main sources of Earth’s internal heat, alongside heat left over from formation.

How this record is known

2
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

2 of 2 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

Established4 TW

Decay of potassium-40 is known to contribute 4 terawatts to Earth’s heat flux, although its neutrinos are below the detection limits of the experiments that measured the uranium and thorium contributions.

  • precision note: Stated by the source as a known contribution without an uncertainty; it is not a result of the geoneutrino measurement reported there.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Nature Geoscience 2011 Peer-reviewed

EstablishedHeat from the decay of uranium, thorium and potassium.

Radiogenic heating in the Earth comes principally from the decay of uranium, thorium and potassium, whose energy slowly migrates toward the surface.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: Kious 1996 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-06. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.