Abrupt thermal transition reveals hydrothermal boundary and role of seamounts within the Cocos Plate

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Read Full Article (file size: 1211898 bytes) Cited by GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 11, 1550, doi:10.1029/2002GL016766, 2003 Abrupt thermal transition reveals hydrothermal boundary and role of seamounts within the Cocos Plate A. T. Fisher Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA C. A. Stein Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA R. N. Harris Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA K. Wang Pacific Geoscience Center, Geological Survey of Canada, Sydney, BC, Canada E. A. Silver Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA M. Pfender Department of Earth Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany M. Hutnak Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA A. Cherkaoui Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA R. Bodzin Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA H. Villinger Department of Earth Science, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Abstract New thermal data from 18–24 Ma lithosphere on the Cocos Plate delineate contrasting subsurface thermal conditions in adjacent sections of crust. Heat flow through seafloor created at the East Pacific Rise is generally suppressed by ∼70% relative to conductive lithospheric cooling models, whereas heat flow through adjacent, similarly-aged lithosphere generated at the Cocos-Nazca Spreading Center is consistent with these models. The transition between thermal regimes is remarkably abrupt, only 2–5 km wide, indicating a shallow hydrothermal origin. The transition is more closely associated with differences in the distribution of basement outcrops than with tectonic boundaries, demonstrating the importance of the former in extracting heat from the lithosphere on a regional basis. Received 13 December 2002; accepted 11 April 2003; published 3 June 2003. Index Terms: 3015 Marine Geology and Geophysics: Heat flow (benthic) and hydrothermal processes. Read Full Article (file size: 1211898 bytes) Cited by Citation: Fisher, A. T., C. A. Stein, R. N. Harris, K. Wang, E. A. Silver, M. Pfender, M. Hutnak, A. Cherkaoui, R. Bodzin, and H. Villinger (2003), Abrupt thermal transition reveals hydrothermal boundary and role of seamounts within the Cocos Plate, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(11), 1550, doi:10.1029/2002GL016766. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.

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