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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L09301, doi:10.1029/2005GL022793, 2005

Modeling thermal history of subducting crust in Nankai Trough: Constraints from in situ sediment temperature and diagenetic reaction progress

G. A. Spinelli

Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, USA


M. B. Underwood

Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA


Abstract

Values of borehole temperature and %-smectite in illite/smectite mixed-layer clay provide important information about the basal heat flux history of the Nankai Trough subduction zone. Numerical simulations of sediment accumulation, heat conduction, and illite/smectite diagenesis permit comparisons of various thermal-history scenarios for ODP Site 1173. In our preferred models, basal heat flux during the first 10 Ma of sedimentation was near typical values for conductively cooling crust. During the last 5 Ma, basal heat flux was higher than expected. The anomalous heat flux was likely influenced by both off-axis volcanism and hydrothermal circulation.

Received 22 February 2005; accepted 15 April 5005; published 7 May 2005.

Index Terms: 3015 Marine Geology and Geophysics: Heat flow (benthic); 3022 Marine Geology and Geophysics: Marine sediments: processes and transport; 8130 Tectonophysics: Heat generation and transport; 8170 Tectonophysics: Subduction zone processes (1031, 3060, 3613, 8413).

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Citation: Spinelli, G. A., and M. B. Underwood (2005), Modeling thermal history of subducting crust in Nankai Trough: Constraints from in situ sediment temperature and diagenetic reaction progress, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L09301, doi:10.1029/2005GL022793.