Heat flow from the Southeast Indian Ridge flanks between 80°E and 140°E: Data review and analysis

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research
• Main Authors: Géli, L., C. Lee, T., R. Cochran, J., Francheteau, J., Abbott, D., Labails, C., Appriou, D.
• Other Authors: Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer - Brest (IFREMER Centre de Bretagne), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Department of Earth Sciences Riverside, University of California Riverside (UCR), University of California-University of California, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia University New York, Domaines Océaniques (LDO), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers-Institut d'écologie et environnement-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2008
• Subjects: marine geophysics; heat flow; mid-ocean ridges; [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Antarctic; Australian-Antarctic Discordance; Indian; Southeast Indian Ridge; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00267287; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00267287/document; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00267287/file/JGR-Geli-franch-08.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JB005001

International audience We analyze available heat flow data from the flanks of the Southeast Indian Ridge adjacent to or within the Australian-Antarctic Discordance (AAD), an area with patchy sediment cover and highly fractured seafloor as dissected by ridge- and fracture-parallel faults. The data set includes 23 new data points collected along a 14-Ma old isochron and 19 existing measurements from the 20- to 24-Ma old crust. Most sites of measurements exhibit low heat flux (from 2 to 50 mW m−2) with near-linear temperature-depth profiles except at a few sites, where recent bottom water temperature change may have caused nonlinearity toward the sediment surface. Because the igneous basement is expected to outcrop a short distance away from any measurement site, we hypothesize that horizontally channelized water circulation within the uppermost crust is the primary process for the widespread low heat flow values. The process may be further influenced by vertical fluid flow along numerous fault zones that crisscross the AAD seafloor. Systematic measurements along and across the fault zones of interest as well as seismic profiling for sediment distribution are required to confirm this possible, suspected effect.