Seafloor heat flow
Heat flow on the sea floor
The oceanic heat flow shown here is computed from the age of the seafloor using the expression for an infinite half space for ages less than 100 Myr and is set equal to 48 mW m-2 for ages larger than that. More precisely, the heat flow density in mW m-2 is computed according to
with a the age of the seafloor in Myr, for a≤100Myr. This expression comes from the theory of half space cooling, which is found to fit very well good quality heat flow data for seafloor younger than 100 Myr. For larger ages the flow is found to be essentially constant, equal to 48 mW m-2 (Lister_etal, 1990).
The image is computed using the Generic Mapping Tool (GMT).
References
C. Jaupart, S. Labrosse, J.-C. Mareschal, 2007, "Temperatures, Heat and Energy in the Mantle of the Earth", Treatise on Geophysics, vol. 7: Mantle dynamics (Bercovici, Schubert, eds), pp. 253-303. (see also)
C.R.B. Lister, J.G. Sclater, E.E. Davis, H. Villinger and S. Nagahira, 1990. Heat flow maintained in ocean basins of great age: investigations in the north equatorial west Pacific. Geophys. J. Int., 102, 603-630.
Laboratoire des sciences de la Terre
Stéphane Labrosse
S. Labrosse

Sea Floor Heat Flow Color Bar

Oceanic heat flow