he paper describes the physical significance of thermal inertia and itsrole in geological remote sensing.Parameters related to thermal physical propertieshave been measured for 23 types of rocks

including thermal conductivity

densityand thermal capacity.Based on this measurement

thermal inertia values and thermaldiffusion coefficients of rocks are calculated and presented in the tables.The primaryregularity that thermal inertia decreases from sedimentary

metamorphic to magma-tic rocks is discussed.Thermal inertia differences between sedimentery rocks

suchas carbonate rocks and sandstone

and sedimentary epimetamorphic rocks are obta-ined

and easy to be discriminated.Meanwhile

thermal inertia differences betweenmid-acidic and alkaline rocks are small and difficult to be distinguished.