FAQs
How have people used geothermal heat in the past?
From earliest times, people used geothermal water that flowed to Earth’s surface as hot springs. The oldest and most common use was just relaxing in the comforting warm waters. History tells us that Romans used geothermal water to treat various diseases and, at Pompeii, to heat buildings. Some 10,000 years ago, Native Americans used hot springs for cooking and medicinal purposes. For centuries the Maori of New Zealand have cooked “geothermally,” and, since the 1960s, France has been heating up to 200,000 homes using geothermal water.