Heat Flow in the Aegean Sea

Abstract

Heat flow measurements taken in the Aegean Sea indicate a high heat flow in the northern and central Aegean. Nine stations at which a linear thermal gradient was measured give a mean value of 2.08 HFU. Four stations in the southern Aegean at which the gradient was non-linear gave limits to the heat flow in this area of between 1.0 and 1.6 HFU. Two high values in the north are associated with a deep bathymetric feature and intense magnetic anomalies. The high heat flow in the Aegean Sea is considered to be due to underthrusting of oceanic crust similar to that which occurs in the marginal basins of the north-west Pacific.

Down-Hole Temperature Measurements, Deep Sea Drilling Project, Leg 42A

“…This value is in excellent agreement with the mean (1.98 ±0.55 × 10~6 cal/cm 2 sec) of 9 conventional heat-flow measurements in the central and northern Aegean, but is substantially higher than the values in the southern Aegean (1.01 to 1.64 × 10 6 cal/cm 2 sec) close to Site 378, all four of which are characterized by thermal gradients which vary systematically with depth (Jongsma, 1974).…”

“…Occurrence of high heat flow in the southern Aegean, where heat-flow measurements using oceanographic techniques had proven unreliable due to the effect of bottom-water temperature variations (Jongsma, 1974), is consistent with, but does not require, the previous concept. Previous oceanographic heat-flow measurements showed higher heat flow in the northern Aegean than in the south, thus indicating spreading in the northern Aegean as suggested previously by Vogt and Higgs (1969) on the basis of aeromagnetic data.…”

“…Heat-flow values in the western Mediterranean as a whole tend to be above normal (see Table 1), with the highest (and most variable values) observed in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The pattern of high heat flow in the western Mediterranean is in sharp contrast to lower and less variable heat-flow values in the eastern Medi- Jongsma(1974) Lavenia(1967) Erickson (1970) Haenel(1972) Erickson (1970) Erickson (1970) a All data were obtained using conventional oceanographic heat probes and have not been corrected for environmental effects.…”

“…Since that time many additional marine heat-flow measurements have been made in both the eastern and western Mediterranean by Ryan (1969), Erickson (1970), and Haenel (1972). Jongsma (1974) and Lavenia (1967) obtained heatflow data in the Aegean and Adriatic seas, respectively. Morgan (in press) determined heat-flow values using temperatures measured in holes on Cyprus.…”

Power law relationship between parameters of earthquakes and precursory electrical phenomena revisited

“…11 is excluded from the present paper for the same reasons referred by Dologlou (2008a) and thoroughly discussed by Dologlou et al (2008). Briefly, this earthquake, with an unusual long lead time, occurred in an area which is characterized by specific structural features such as small thickness of the crust (Le Pichon et al, 1984) and high heat flow rate (Jongsma, 1974).…”