We analyze the heat transport from a heated sphere as it melts its way through a solid medium. The work of Emerman and Turcotte [Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 26 (11) (1983) 1625-1630] is used as a starting point. A thermal layer is added beyond the melt layer to account more accurately for the heat transport to the surrounding medium. This two-layer approach allows us to estimate the extent of the melt region. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.