Search

Search Results

• 1. [Article] Thermal regime of the Costa Rican convergent margin: 2. Thermal models of the shallow Middle America subduction zone offshore Costa Rica

  At the Costa Rica margin along the Middle America Trench along‐strike variations in heat flow are well mapped. These variations can be understood in terms of either ventilated fluid flow, where exposed ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Thermal regime of the Costa Rican convergent margin: 2. Thermal models of the shallow Middle America subduction zone offshore Costa Rica Author: Ranero, César R., Spinelli, Glenn, Harris, Robert N. At the Costa Rica margin along the Middle America Trench along‐strike variations in heat flow are well mapped. These variations can be understood in terms of either ventilated fluid flow, where exposed basement allows fluids to freely advect heat between the crustal aquifer and ocean, or insulated fluid flow where continuous sediment cover restricts heat advection to within the crustal aquifer. We model fluid flow within the subducting aquifer using Nusselt number approximations coupled with finite element models of subduction and explore its effect on temperatures along the subduction thrust. The sensitivity of these models to the initial thermal state of the plate and styles of fluid flow, either ventilated or insulated, is explored. Heat flow measurements on cool crust accreted at the East Pacific Rise are consistent with ventilated hydrothermal cooling that continues with subduction. These models yield much cooler temperatures than predicted from simulations initialized with conductive predictions and without hydrothermal circulation. Heat flow transects on warm crust accreted at the Cocos‐Nazca spreading center are consistent with models of insulated hydrothermal circulation that advects heat updip within the subducting crustal aquifer. Near the trench these models are warmer than conductive predictions and cooler than conductive predictions downdip of the trench. Comparisons between microseismicity and modeled isotherms suggest that the updip limit of microseismicity occurs at temperatures warmer than 100°C and that the downdip extent of microseismicity is bounded by the intersection of the subduction thrust with the base of the overriding crust. Title: Thermal regime of the Costa Rican convergent margin: 2. Thermal models of the shallow Middle America subduction zone offshore Costa Rica Author: Ranero, César R., Spinelli, Glenn, Harris, Robert N. At the Costa Rica margin along the Middle America Trench along‐strike variations in heat flow are well mapped. These variations can be understood in terms of either ventilated fluid flow, where exposed basement allows fluids to freely advect heat between the crustal aquifer and ocean, or insulated fluid flow where continuous sediment cover restricts heat advection to within the crustal aquifer. We model fluid flow within the subducting aquifer using Nusselt number approximations coupled with finite element models of subduction and explore its effect on temperatures along the subduction thrust. The sensitivity of these models to the initial thermal state of the plate and styles of fluid flow, either ventilated or insulated, is explored. Heat flow measurements on cool crust accreted at the East Pacific Rise are consistent with ventilated hydrothermal cooling that continues with subduction. These models yield much cooler temperatures than predicted from simulations initialized with conductive predictions and without hydrothermal circulation. Heat flow transects on warm crust accreted at the Cocos‐Nazca spreading center are consistent with models of insulated hydrothermal circulation that advects heat updip within the subducting crustal aquifer. Near the trench these models are warmer than conductive predictions and cooler than conductive predictions downdip of the trench. Comparisons between microseismicity and modeled isotherms suggest that the updip limit of microseismicity occurs at temperatures warmer than 100°C and that the downdip extent of microseismicity is bounded by the intersection of the subduction thrust with the base of the overriding crust. Close

• 2. [Article] Heat flow along the NanTroSEIZE transect: Results from IODP Expeditions 315 and 316 offshore the Kii Peninsula, Japan

  [1] We report detailed thermal measurements undertaken during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expeditions 315 and 316 along the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) transect offshore ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Heat flow along the NanTroSEIZE transect: Results from IODP Expeditions 315 and 316 offshore the Kii Peninsula, Japan Author: Schmidt‐Schierhorn, Friederike, Spinelli, Glenn, Harris, Robert N. [1] We report detailed thermal measurements undertaken during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expeditions 315 and 316 along the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) transect offshore the Kii Peninsula, Japan. Geothermal objectives included determining thermophysical rock properties of the cored material and characterizing the background thermal regime along this transect. New thermal conductivity measurements made with a divided bar are reported and supplement shipboard full‐ and half‐space thermal conductivity measurements for a total of 938 thermal conductivity measurements. Thermal conductivity varies between about 1.0 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ near the seafloor to 1.6 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ at a depth of 1 km. Thermal conductivity generally increases with depth and correlates with variations in porosity and lithology. Thermal gradients along the transect are characterized by 48 sediment temperature measurements from 6 sites. Thermal corrections for the effects of bathymetric relief and sedimentation improve the confidence with which the heat flow values can be interpreted. Heat flow generally decreases with landward distance from the deformation front and varies from 70 mW m⁻² just landward of the deformation front to 54 mW m⁻² at sites characterizing the outer fore‐arc high and to 57 mW m⁻² at the Kumano Basin Site. IODP heat flow measurements are significantly lower than nearby seafloor heat flow measurements. This difference is most likely due to variations in bottom water temperature that have a large effect on values of seafloor heat flow. Thus the heat flow of the Nankai accretionary prism is lower than previously thought. We present thermal models of subduction along this transect and explore the impact of the initial geotherm. Conductive plate cooling based on the age of subducting seafloor (20 Myr) under predicts the observed heat flow. We find a good fit to the data using a geotherm appropriate for 10 Myr seafloor. The extra heat is interpreted in terms of back‐arc thermal environments. Title: Heat flow along the NanTroSEIZE transect: Results from IODP Expeditions 315 and 316 offshore the Kii Peninsula, Japan Author: Schmidt‐Schierhorn, Friederike, Spinelli, Glenn, Harris, Robert N. [1] We report detailed thermal measurements undertaken during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expeditions 315 and 316 along the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) transect offshore the Kii Peninsula, Japan. Geothermal objectives included determining thermophysical rock properties of the cored material and characterizing the background thermal regime along this transect. New thermal conductivity measurements made with a divided bar are reported and supplement shipboard full‐ and half‐space thermal conductivity measurements for a total of 938 thermal conductivity measurements. Thermal conductivity varies between about 1.0 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ near the seafloor to 1.6 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ at a depth of 1 km. Thermal conductivity generally increases with depth and correlates with variations in porosity and lithology. Thermal gradients along the transect are characterized by 48 sediment temperature measurements from 6 sites. Thermal corrections for the effects of bathymetric relief and sedimentation improve the confidence with which the heat flow values can be interpreted. Heat flow generally decreases with landward distance from the deformation front and varies from 70 mW m⁻² just landward of the deformation front to 54 mW m⁻² at sites characterizing the outer fore‐arc high and to 57 mW m⁻² at the Kumano Basin Site. IODP heat flow measurements are significantly lower than nearby seafloor heat flow measurements. This difference is most likely due to variations in bottom water temperature that have a large effect on values of seafloor heat flow. Thus the heat flow of the Nankai accretionary prism is lower than previously thought. We present thermal models of subduction along this transect and explore the impact of the initial geotherm. Conductive plate cooling based on the age of subducting seafloor (20 Myr) under predicts the observed heat flow. We find a good fit to the data using a geotherm appropriate for 10 Myr seafloor. The extra heat is interpreted in terms of back‐arc thermal environments. Close