Queen Charlotte fault zone: heat flow measurements

1982 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1657-1669 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. D. Hyndman ◽  
T. J. Lewis ◽  
J. A. Wright ◽  
Margaret Burgess ◽  
D. S. Chapman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
Fault Zone ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Frictional Heat ◽  
Flow Transition ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Bottom Water Temperature ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Land Site ◽  
The Mean

The heat flow pattern from the deep sea across the Queen Charlotte Terrace to the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands has been determined through 20 marine heat flow measurements and by 11 borehole measurements at one land site. There is a continuous transition from very high deep sea heat flow, through intermediate values on the terrace, to low continental heat flow. The deep sea values are scattered, probably reflecting hydrothermal circulation in the crust, but their mean is in agreement with the theoretical value for the 7 Ma deep sea oceanic crust. The mean heat flow at the land site of 47 mW m−2 is similar to the average for the coast Insular Belt to the south and east. The measurements on the 30 km wide 2 km deep terrace are less scattered and much lower than those on the deep sea floor. The main thermal contrast is at the seaward edge of the terrace rather than near the coast where the earthquakes of the main plate boundary are located. Numerical models suggest that no reasonable steady state ocean–continent boundary can explain the observed heat flow transition. The data are consistent with a model of oblique underthrusting of the deep sea floor beneath the terrace. The continental margin heat flow transition will tend to mask any thermal anomaly generated by fault motion, but the results imply that there is no large frictional heat generated by motion on the Queen Charlotte fault.Nine marine heat flow measurements were made at the southwestern end of Queen Charlotte Sound south of the Queen Charlotte fault zone to test the hypothesis that the sound is a zone of recent crustal extension or rifting. The measurements were limited to isolated pockets of soft sediment and to sea floor depths greater than 800 m where bottom water temperature transients are negligible. The heat flow values are fairly uniform with an average of 86 mW m−2, which is about double the mean of other Insular Belt values. The Queen Charlotte Sound values could be affected by a nearby ocean spreading centre or by sediment erosion, but they are consistent with the rift hypothesis.

Some new measurements of heat flow in the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1486-1489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Drury ◽  
Alan Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Standard Deviation ◽  
Heat Flow ◽  
Canadian Shield ◽  
Superior Province ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Radiogenic Heat ◽  
Radiogenic Heat Production ◽  
Climatic Variations ◽  
The Mean ◽  
A Site

Borehole heat-flow measurements are reported from six new sites in the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield. Values adjusted for glaciation effects, but not for Holocene climatic variations, range from 42 to 56 mW/m2. When these new values are combined with 21 previously published borehole values the mean is 42 mW/m2 with a standard deviation of 11 mW/m2. The data for a site on the Lac du Bonnet batholith suggest that the batholith has a thin veneer, less than 3 km, of rock of high radiogenic heat production at the surface.

Heat Flow through the Deep Sea Floor

1956 ◽  
pp. 153-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.C. Bullard ◽  
A.E. Maxwell ◽  
R. Revelle
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Flow Through

scholarly journals Heat Flow Measurements at the Danube Deep-Sea Fan, Western Black Sea

Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Michael Riedel ◽  
Jörg Bialas ◽  
Heinrich Villinger ◽  
Thomas Pape ◽  
Matthias Haeckel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Gas Hydrate ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Topographic Effects ◽  
Red Clay ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Late Pleistocene To Holocene ◽  
Sea Fan

Seafloor heat flow measurements are utilized to determine the geothermal regime of the Danube deep-sea fan in the western Black Sea and are presented in the larger context of regional gas hydrate occurrences. Heat flow data were collected across paleo-channels in water depths of 550–1460 m. Heat flow across levees ranges from 25 to 30 mW m−2 but is up to 65 mW m−2 on channel floors. Gravity coring reveals sediment layers typical of the western Black Sea, consisting of three late Pleistocene to Holocene units, notably red clay within the lowermost unit cored. Heat flow derived from the bottom-simulating reflector (BSR), assumed to represent the base of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ), deviates from seafloor measurements. These discrepancies are linked either to fast sedimentation or slumping and associated variations in sediment physical properties. Topographic effects account of up to 50% of heat flow deviations from average values. Combined with climate-induced variations in seafloor temperature and sea-level since the last glacial maximum large uncertainties in the prediction of the base of the GHSZ remain. A regional representative heat flow value is ~30 mW m−2 for the study region but deviations from this value may be up to 100%.

scholarly journals Development of a 16-channel Heat Flow Measuring System and its Test Application on the Deep Sea Floor

1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-532
Author(s):  
Seiichi NAGIHARA ◽  
Shigebumi SUZUKI ◽  
Ritsuko BOH ◽  
Hajimu KINOSHITA
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Measuring System ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Test Application

A discussion concerning the floor of the northwest Indian Ocean - Heat flow in the northwest Indian Ocean and Red Sea

1966 ◽  
Vol 259 (1099) ◽  
pp. 271-278 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Heat Flow ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
Geothermal Gradient ◽  
Mean Value ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Bottom Water Temperature ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Flow Through

Twenty-four measurements of the heat flow through the ocean floor were made in the Indian Ocean and three in the Red Sea. A critical analysis of the effects of fluctuations of bottom-water temperature on the geothermal gradient in the Red Sea shows that these fluctuations do not invalidate the measurements of heat flow. The mean value for the Gulf of Aden (this includes five previous measurements) is 3.89 + 0.49 /tcal cm -2 s -1 . This high value, combined with the shape of a profile across the Gulf, suggests a region of unusually high temperature at a depth of less than 10 km below the bottom. The seventeen heat flow measurements made by R.R.S. Discovery and R. V. Vema between the African coast and the Seychelles show little variation about a mean value of 1.17 /tcal cm -2 s -1 . The comparison of these observations and the deep structure, as determined by a series of seismic lines, shows a constant heat flow across the continental margin. The author is indebted to Mr R. Belderson of the National Institute of Oceanography for a brief description of the cores taken on the cruise.

scholarly journals Positive geothermal anomalies in oceanic crust of Cretaceous age offshore Kamchatka

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 453-476
Author(s):  
G. Delisle
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
Oceanic Crust ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
High Heat Flow ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
Bathymetric Data

Abstract. Heat flow measurements were carried out in 2009 offshore Kamchatka during the German-Russian joint-expedition KALMAR. An area with elevated heat flow in oceanic crust of Cretaceous age – detected ~30 years ago in the course of several Russian heat flow surveys – was revisited. One previous interpretation postulated anomalous lithospheric conditions or a connection between a postulated mantle plume at great depth (> 200 km) as the source for the observed high heat flow. However, the positive heat flow anomaly – as our bathymetric data show – is closely associated with the fragmentation of the western flank of the Meiji Seamount into a horst and graben structure, initiated during descend of the oceanic crust into the subduction zone offshore Kamchatka. This paper offers an alternative interpretation, which connects high heat flow primarily with natural convection of fluids in the fragmented rock mass and, as a potential additional factor, high rates of erosion, for which evidence is available from our collected bathymetric image. Given high erosion rates, warm rock material at depth rises to nearer the sea floor, where it cools and causes temporary elevated heat flow.

scholarly journals Positive geothermal anomalies in oceanic crust of Cretaceous age offshore Kamchatka

Solid Earth ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-198
Author(s):  
G. Delisle
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flow ◽  
Oceanic Crust ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
High Heat Flow ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Erosion Rates ◽  
Bathymetric Data

Abstract. Heat flow measurements were carried out in 2009 offshore Kamchatka during the German-Russian joint-expedition KALMAR. An area with elevated heat flow in oceanic crust of Cretaceous age – detected ~30 yr ago in the course of several Russian heat flow surveys – was revisited. One previous interpretation postulated anomalous lithospheric conditions or a connection between a postulated mantle plume at great depth (>200 km) as the source for the observed high heat flow. However, the positive heat flow anomaly – as our bathymetric data show – is closely associated with the fragmentation of the western flank of the Meiji Seamount into a horst and graben structure initiated during descent of the oceanic crust into the subduction zone offshore Kamchatka. This paper offers an alternative interpretation, which connects high heat flow primarily with natural convection of fluids in the fragmented rock mass and, as a potential additional factor, high rates of erosion, for which evidence is available from our collected bathymetric image. Given high erosion rates, warm rock material at depth rises to nearer the sea floor, where it cools and causes temporary elevated heat flow.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document