Heat Flow in the Arctic

Defines heat flow as the flux at the earth's solid surface of heat conducted from the interior; the heat-flow-unit (hfu) is on the order of 1-millionth calorie through each sq cm of the surface/sec, which is enough to melt a 4-mm layer of ice over the earth's surface/yr. Earth heat originates from radioactive decay of U, Th and K in the crust and mantle. Although land heat-flow measurements in the Arctic are too few for regional interpretation, those from Cape Thompson, Barrow and Cape Simpson, Northern Alaska are discussed and figured to show what they contribute to understanding of permafrost, climatic change and shoreline movements. Measuring thermal conductivity and gradient is much simpler in ocean basins than on land. Locations of such measurements are mapped, the results for the Alaskan quadrant in more detail. The sharp change in heat flow at the edge of the Alpha Cordillera, shown in a geothermal model, suggests that this feature is a huge accumulation of basalt, rather than mantle material or remnant of a foundering continent as previously postulated. Future Arctic heat flow studies are discussed

Heat flow in southernmost California and the origin of the Salton Trough

Heat flow in the Imperial Valley and adjacent crystalline rocks is very high (∼140 mW m−2). Gravity and seismic studies suggest the crust is about 23.5 km thick with the lower half composed of gabbro and the upper fourth composed of low-density sediments. Conduction through such a crust resting directly on asthenosphere would give the observed heat flow if there were no extension or sedimentation. However, both processes must have been active, as the Imperial Valley is part of the Salton Trough, a pull-apart sedimentary basin that evolved over the past 4 or 5 m.y. To investigate the interrelations of these factors, we consider a one-dimensional model of basin formation in which the lower crustal gabbro and upper crustal sediments accumulated simultaneously as the crust extended and sedimentation kept pace with isostatic subsidence. For parameters appropriate for the Salton Trough, increasing the extension rate has little effect on surface heat flow because it increases effects of heating by intrusion and cooling by sedimentation in a compensating manner; it does, however, result in progressively increasing lower crustal temperatures. Analytical results suggest that the average extensional strain rate during formation of the trough was ∼20–50%/m.y. (∼1014 s−1); slower rates are inadequate to account for the present composition of the crust, and faster rates would probably cause massive crustal melting. To achieve the differential velocities of the Pacific plate at one end of the trough and North American plate at the other with this strain rate, extension must have, on the average, been distributed (or shifted about) over a spreading region ∼150 km wide. This is about 10 times wider than the present zone of active seismicity, suggesting that the seismic pattern is ephemeral on the time scale for the trough's formation. Narrow spreading zones are typical where sustained spreading is compensated by basaltic intrusion to form the thin oceanic crust, but where such spreading occurs in thicker continental crust, broader zones of distributed extension (with smaller strain rates) may be required for heat balance. The Salton Trough model suggests that distributed extension can be associated with substantial magmatic additions to the crust; their effect on crustal buoyancy has important implications for the relation between crustal extension and subsidence

Heat flow in the Western Arctic Ocean (Amerasian Basin)

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth 124(8), (2019): 7562-7587, doi: 10.1029/2019JB017587.From 1963 to 1973 the U.S. Geological Survey measured heat flow at 356 sites in the Amerasian Basin (Western Arctic Ocean) from a drifting ice island (T‐3). The resulting measurements, which are unevenly distributed on Alpha‐Mendeleev Ridge and in Canada and Nautilus Basins, greatly expand available heat flow data for the Arctic Ocean. Average T‐3 heat flow is ~54.7 ± 11.3 mW/m2, and Nautilus Basin is the only well‐surveyed area (~13% of data) with significantly higher average heat flow (63.8 mW/m2). Heat flow and bathymetry are not correlated at a large scale, and turbiditic surficial sediments (Canada and Nautilus Basins) have higher heat flow than the sediments that blanket the Alpha‐Mendeleev Ridge. Thermal gradients are mostly near‐linear, implying that conductive heat transport dominates and that near‐seafloor sediments are in thermal equilibrium with overlying bottom waters. Combining the heat flow data with modern seismic imagery suggests that some of the observed heat flow variability may be explained by local changes in lithology or the presence of basement faults that channel circulating seawater. A numerical model that incorporates thermal conductivity variations along a profile from Canada Basin (thick sediment on mostly oceanic crust) to Alpha Ridge (thin sediment over thick magmatic units associated with the High Arctic Large Igneous Province) predicts heat flow slightly lower than that observed on Alpha Ridge. This, along with other observations, implies that circulating fluids modulate conductive heat flow and contribute to high variability in the T‐3 data set.B.V. Marshall of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was critical to the T‐3 heat flow studies and would have been included as a coauthor on this work if he were not deceased. The original T‐3 heat flow data acquisition program was supported by the USGS and by the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory of the Office of Naval Research. Over the decade of USGS research on T‐3 Ice Island, numerous researchers and technical staff, including B.V. Marshall, P. Twichell, D. Scoboria, J. Tailleur, B. Tailleur, and others, spent months on the island and endured difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions to acquire this data set alongside colleagues from other institutions. Outstanding support from the USGS Menlo Park office, transportation and logistics assistance from other U.S. federal government agencies, Arctic expertise supplied by native Alaskan communities, and collaboration with Lamont researchers made this research program possible. B. Lachenbruch and L. Lawver revived interest in this data set in 2016, and they, along with D. Darby and J. K. Hall, provided ancillary information on T‐3 studies. B. Clarke and M. Arsenault assisted with initial data digitization. We thank M. Jakobsson, R. Saltus, and G. Oakey for providing critical shapefiles and other data and R. Jackson and S. Mukasa for clarification on unpublished information. Reviews by J. Hopper, P. Hart, and W. Jokat improved the manuscript, and V. Atnipp Cross and A. Babb were instrumental in completion of data releases. The USGS's Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program supported C.R. and D.H. between 2016 and 2019, and C.R. used office space provided by the Earth Resources Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during completion of this work. Data in Figure 11 were provided by the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) Project. The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and the U.S. Geological Survey, but do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. ECS Project. Any use of trade, firm, or product name is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Digital data, metadata, and supporting plots for T‐3 heat flow, navigation, and radiogenic heat content, along with Lamont gravity and magnetics data, are available from Ruppel et al. (2019), and the original T‐3 expedition report with explanatory metadata can be downloaded from Lachenbruch et al. (2019)

Rapid estimation of the topographic disturbance to superficial thermal gradients

The Jeffreys-Bullard theory of the topographic correction to geothermal gradients cannot be applied with confidence if the height of the relief is large relative to the horizontal distance and depth of the measurement points. It cannot be generally applied to shallow probe measurements in the ocean bottom if bold relief occurs on a scale exceeding a few meters, or on continents to observation in shallow boreholes in extremely rugged terrain. In an important special case, where the measurement depth is small relative to the distance to the relief, the ‘superficial’ gradient anomaly may be approximated by the value applicable at zero depth. A fairly general two-dimensional steady-state theory for this case can be based on the solution for heat flux through an inclined plane of arbitrary height and slope angle. These two parameters are easily visualized and represented graphically so that models which approximate or bracket real topography can be identified quickly. The results can be applied to stations on planes, valleys, ridges, or benches bounded by irregular slopes. They are valid for points arbitrarily close to slopes of any height or inclination. Finite slope and curvature of the surface at the station can be accommodated if they are not too great. Even if other theories of the topographic correction are applicable, the present method can be useful, as it leads to rapid estimates by graphical means and to useful limits even if the superficial condition is not satisfied. Curvature in an ocean-bottom temperature profile justifies suspicion of a topographic disturbance from undetected relief. The temperature probe's length should be 2 or 3 times the uncertainty in local elevation difference, and measured curvature should be negligible for reasonable assurance that undetected relief is not causing gradient errors greater than ±10%. Relief not detectable with conventional echo sounders, but of the type observed with deeply towed sounding equipment, can cause heat-flow anomalies of 50–100%, and relatively little curvature will be indicated by probes a few meters long. The very high oceanic heat flows are difficult to explain by undetected relief, but the very low ones are not

United States Geological Survey Report 1083-A

From abstract: Solutions to the Fourier heat equation for quasi-steady periodic flow in a stratified semi-infinite medium can be obtained readily by standard methods. The results have wide application to studies of earth-temperature variations induced by diurnal, annual, and other periodic variations in ground-surface temperature. Much of the previous work on this subject has been interpreted with reference to the solution for the homogeneous case; and this can be seriously in error when applied to stratified earth materials

Temperature profiles from Salt Valley, Utah, thermal conductivity of 10 samples from drill hole DOE 3, and preliminary estimates of heat flow

As part of a thermal study of the Salt Valley anticline, Paradox Basin, Utah, temperature profiles were obtained in nine wells drilled by the Department of Energy. Thermal conductivities were also measured on ten samples judged to be representative of the rocks encountered in the deepest hole (DOE 3) (R. J. Hite, personal communication, November 21, 1980). In this interim report, the temperature profiles and thermal conductivities are presented, together with some preliminary interpretive remarks and some suggestions for additional work