The forgotten component of sub-glacial heat flow: upper crustal heat production and resultant total heat flux on the Antarctic Peninsula

• Main Authors: Burton-Johnson, A, Halpin, J, Whittaker, J, Watson, S
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus GmbH 2017
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Geology; Tectonics; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://ecite.utas.edu.au/116867

Seismic and magnetic geophysical methods have both been employed to produce estimates of heat flux beneaththe Antarctic ice sheet. However, both methods use a homogeneous upper crustal model despite the variableconcentration of heat producing elements within its composite lithologies.Using geological and geochemical datasets from the Antarctic Peninsula we have developed a new methodologyfor incorporating upper crustal heat production in heat flux models and have shown the greater variability thisintroduces in to estimates of crustal heat flux, with implications for glaciological modelling.