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Heat flow in the southern Chile forearc controlled by large-scale tectonic processes

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Abstract

Between 33°S and 47°S, the southern Chile forearc is affected by the subduction of the aseismic Juan Fernandez Ridge, several major oceanic fracture zones on the subducting Nazca Plate, the active Chile Ridge spreading centre, and the underthrusting Antarctic Plate. The heat flow through the forearc was estimated using the depth of the bottom simulating reflector obtained from a comprehensive database of reflection seismic profiles. On the upper and middle continental slope along the whole forearc, heat flow is about 30–60 mW m–2, a range of values common for the continental basement and overlying slope sediments. The actively deforming accretionary wedge on the lower slope, however, in places shows heat flow reaching about 90 mW m–2. This indicates that advecting pore fluids from deeper in the subduction zone may transport a substantial part of the heat there. The large size of the anomalies suggests that fluid advection and outflow at the seafloor is overall diffuse, rather than being restricted to individual fault structures or mud volcanoes and mud mounds. One large area with very high heat flow is associated with a major tectonic feature. Thus, above the subducting Chile Ridge at 46°S, values of up to 280 mW m–2 indicate that the overriding South American Plate is effectively heated by subjacent zero-age oceanic plate material.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the contributors of the programme Hidratos de gas submarinos: una nueva fuente de energía para el siglo XXI (FONDEF Grant D00I11004), who provided the time migrated data from R/V Vidal Gormaz cruises VG02 and 06. We thank GEOMAR for the use of data from R/V Sonne cruises S0161 and SO101. Special thanks are due to Steven Cande and Stephen Lewis, who acquired the openly available data (http://www.ig.utexas.edu/sdc/) of R/V Robert Conrad Cruise RC 2901. Lucia Villar-Muñoz acknowledges tenure of a postgraduate DAAD grant, Heiner Villinger for stimulating input, and an invitation to participate in the ECORD Summer School 2011 at MARUM, Bremen, Germany. Constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers, as well as the guest editor Catherine Pierre and the journal editors were most helpful in improving the manuscript.

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  1. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Wischhofstr 1-3, 24148, Kiel, Germany

    Lucia Villar-Muñoz, Jan H. Behrmann, Dirk Klaeschen & Jens Karstens

  2. Escuela de Ciencias del Mar, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Av. Altamirano, 1480, Valparaíso, Chile

    Juan Diaz-Naveas

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  1. Lucia Villar-Muñoz
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  2. Jan H. Behrmann
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Correspondence to Lucia Villar-Muñoz.

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Villar-Muñoz, L., Behrmann, J.H., Diaz-Naveas, J. et al. Heat flow in the southern Chile forearc controlled by large-scale tectonic processes. Geo-Mar Lett 34, 185–198 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-013-0353-z

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