Australia looks completely ordinary on the surface—but kilometres beneath the Outback, something extraordinary is happening. Deep below the desert lies an enormous region of unusually hot rock, with temperatures reaching 243°C at around four kilometres underground. And unlike the volcanic landscapes most people associate with extreme underground heat, there is no active volcano driving it.

The explanation involves radioactive elements trapped inside ancient Australian crust, heat-producing granite, enormous layers of sediment, and billions of years of continuous radioactive decay. Near Innamincka, drilling into the Cooper Basin actually recorded temperatures hot enough to generate electricity, revealing just how extreme this hidden geological system can become.

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