A New Model for Heat Flow in Extensional Basins: Radiogenic Heat,Asthenospheric Heat,and the McKenzie Model |
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| Authors: | Waples Douglas W |
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| Institution: | (1) 9299 William Cody Drive, Evergreen, Colorado, 80439 |
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| Abstract: | The McKenzie model proposed in 1978, which is widely used in calculating the thermal history of rift basins and other extensional basins, incorrectly assumes that all heat passing through the lithosphere originates below the lithosphere. In reality, heat from radiogenic sources within the lithosphere, especially in the upper crust, may represent more than half the heat flow at the top of basement. Thinning of the lithosphere during extension does indeed result in an increase of heat flowing from the asthenosphere, but this thinning also reduces the radiogenic heat from within the lithosphere. Because these two effects cancel to a large degree, the direct effects of lithospheric extension on heat flow at the top of basement are smaller than those predicted by the McKenzie model. Because of permanent loss of radiogenic material by lithospheric thinning, the heat flow at the top of basement long after rifting will be lower than the pre-rift heat flow.The McKenzie model predicts an instantaneous increase in heat flow during rifting. The Morgan model proposed in 1983, however, predicts a substantial time delay in the arrival of the higher heat flow from the asthenosphere at the top of basement or within sediments. Using the Morgan model, heat flow during the early stages of rifting will actually be lower than prior to rifting, because the time delay in the loss of radiogenic heat is less than the time delay in arrival of new heat from the asthenosphere. |
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| Keywords: | McKenzie model rifting radiogenic heat heat flow |
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