the Plumbing of Crust: How Heat, Pressure, and Fluids Move Through Earth: 1

The Earth contains enormous heat, pressure, and fluid energy-but the presence of heat at depth does not by itself create a usable resource. The Plumbing of the Crust begins the Deep Earth Energy Systems series by asking how heat and fluids actually move through rock. Preston Tucker, DBA examines permeability, porosity, faults, fractures, pressure compartments, phase behavior, chemical reactions, and the pathways that connect-or isolate-different parts of the subsurface. Rather than treating geology as a static map, the book follows the crust as a dynamic system. It shows why a fault is not automatically a flow path, why temperature is not the same as deliverable energy, why pressure communication is not proof of new mass, and why connectivity, throughput, scale, and persistence must be demonstrated separately. Field examples including Brady Hot Springs, the Snake River Plain, Krafla, Guaymas Basin, and Lost City show how very different deep-Earth systems can be evaluated using the same evidence discipline. The result is a foundation for understanding geothermal systems, deep fluids, natural hydrogen, mineralizing systems, and the engineering challenges addressed in the rest of the series.