Research

Deep Geothermal Heat Research

Research related to Earth Source Heat continually evolved as the project progressed through the preparatory phase and moved into the exploratory phase. In summer 2022, the university drilled an approximately 2-mile-deep exploratory borehole that was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Other recent work has focused on identifying and modeling flow rates of potential sedimentary and crystalline bedrock reservoirs, surface geophysical testing to characterize the mechanical structure of the subsurface, multiple phases of seismometer deployments and updating existing campus energy distribution infrastructure. All the data collected as part of this project and resulting analyses are made publicly available on Cornell’s Deep Geothermal Heat Research website.