Heat ftow in the Imperial Valley and adjacent crystalline rocks is very high ( -140 mW m -1 ). 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 ftow 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 o n surface heat ftow 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 -2(}-50%/ m.y. ( -10 14 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 lun 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. I . I TRODUCTIOSouthernmost California is a region of high mountains, deep valleys, active faults, a nd locally intense geothermal activity. Within it, the central tectonic feature is the Salton Trough, a large complex pull-apart basin that lies ast ride the Pacific· North American plate boundary over the 300 km distance between the southern end of the San Andreas fault near the Salton Sea and the northern end of the Gulf of California in Mexico (Figures I and 2). Although the principal tectonic motion is shearing between the plates (represented by horizontal velocity differences of several centimeters per year), rapid uplift of rugged mountains nearby [Sha...
[1] Detailed thermal measurements have been acquired in the 2.2-km-deep SAFOD pilot hole, located 1.8 km west of the SAF near Parkfield, California. Heat flow from the basement section of the borehole (770 to 2160 m) is 91 mW m À2 , higher than the published 74 mW m À2 average for the Parkfield area. Within the resolution of the measurements, heat flow is constant across faults that intersect the borehole, suggesting that fluid flow does not alter the conductive thermal regime. Reanalysis of regional heat flow reveals an increase in heat flow along the SAF northwest of Parkfield. This transition corresponds to a shallowing base of seismicity and a change in fault behavior near the northern terminus of the M6 1966 Parkfield earthquake rupture. The persistence of elevated heat flow in the Coast Ranges to the west appears to rule out frictional heating on the SAF as the source of the SAFOD value.
With about 150 new heat flow values, more than 200 values of heat flow are now available from the crystalline terranes of southern California, the Basin and Range Province of Arizona, and Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of the southwestern Colorado Plateau (CP). Heat flow ranges from about 5 mW m−2 on the CP near Flagstaff, Arizona, to more than 150 mW m−2 in the crystalline rocks bordering the Salton Trough in SE California. The heat flow pattern within this region is complex, although it correlates with regional physiographic and tectonic features. Unlike the adjacent Sierra Nevada Batholith where heat flow is a linear function of near‐surface radiogenic heat production, no statistically significant correlation exists between heat flow and heat production in the study area, possibly because of its complex tectonic history, involving lateral movement of basement terranes, and relatively young heat sources and sinks of different strengths, ages, and durations. Contemporary and Neogene extensional tectonism appears to be responsible for the very high heat flow (>100 mW m−2) associated with the Salton Trough and its neighboring ranges, the Death Valley fault zone and its southward extension along the eastern boundary of the Mojave block, and zones of shallow depth (<10 km) to the Curie isotherm (as inferred from aerornagnetic data) in west central Arizona. Low (<60 mW m−2) heat flow in the Peninsular Ranges and eastern Transverse Ranges of California may be caused by downward advection associated with subduction and compressional tectonics. Relatively low heat flow (67±4 mW m−2) is also associated with the main trend of metamorphic core complexes in Arizona, and the outcropping rocks in the core complexes have a low radioactive heat production (1.3±0.3 μW m−3) compared to the other crystalline rocks in the region (2.1±0.2 μW m−3).
Knowledge of the temperature variation with depth near the San Andreas fault is vital to understanding the physical processes that occur within the fault zone during earthquakes and creep events. Parkfield is near the southern end of the Coast Ranges segment of the San Andreas fault. This segment has higher mean heat flow than the Cape Mendocino segment to the northwest or the Mojave segment to the southeast. Boreholes were drilled specifically for the U.S. Geological Survey's Parkfield earthquake prediction experiment or converted from other uses at 25 sites within a few kilometers of the fault near Parkfield. These holes, which range in depth from 150 to over 1500m, were intended mainly for the deployment of volumetric strain meters, water‐level recorders, and other downhole instruments. Temperature profiles were obtained from all the holes, and heat flow values were estimated from 17 of them. For a number of reasons, including a paucity of thermal conductivity data and rugged local topography, the accuracy of individual determinations was not sufficiently high to document local variations in heat flow. Values range from 54 to 92 mW m−2, with mean and 95% confidence limits of 74±4 mW m−2. This mean is slightly lower than the mean (83±3) of 39 previously published values from the central Coast Ranges, but it is consistent with the overall pattern of elevated heat flow in the Coast Ranges, and it is transitional to the mean of 68±2 mW m−2 that characterizes the Mojave segment of the San Andreas fault immediately to the south. The lack of a heat flow peak near the fault underscores the absence of a frictional thermal anomaly and provides additional support for a very small resolved shear stress parallel to the San Andreas fault and the nearly fault‐normal maximum compressive stress observed in this region. Estimates of subsurface thermal conditions indicate that the seismicaseismic transition for the Parkfield segment corresponds to temperatures in the range of 350°–400°C. Increasing heat flow to the northwest of Parkfield corresponds to a transition from locked to creeping sections and to a shallowing of the base of seismicity and confirms the importance of temperature in controlling the thickness of the seismogenic crust. Lateral variations in heat flow do not appear to have any major role in determining the regularity of M5.5–6 earthquakes at Parkfield.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.