EROSION AND THE AGE DEPENDENCE OF CONTINENTAL HEAT-FLOW
Erosion of continental crust has two effects on surface heat flow: a decrease due to the removal of heat-producing elements, and an increase due to the movement of hot rock towards the surface. In an orogenic belt, where erosion may remove tens of kilometres of material, these effects are important...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| 格式: | Journal article |
| 语言: | English |
| 出版: |
1980
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| 总结: | Erosion of continental crust has two effects on surface heat flow: a decrease due to the removal of heat-producing elements, and an increase due to the movement of hot rock towards the surface. In an orogenic belt, where erosion may remove tens of kilometres of material, these effects are important over time-spans comparable with the life of the belt as an elevated region. An expression is derived which relates surface heat flow to time, heat flow through the deep lithosphere, the distribution of heat sources and the amount and time constant of erosion. The variability of crustal processes permits wide ranges of values for these parameters and geologically reasonable parametral combinations can readily be found which satisfy the surface heat flow observations. These combinations can account for the long time-scale of surface heat flow decay, and the influence of erosion on 'reduced' heat flow has important consequences.-Authors |
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