Abstract
In southern British Columbia the terrestrial heat flow is low (44 mW m−2) to the west of the Coast Plutonic Complex (CPC), average in CPC (50–60 mW m−2),and high to the east(80–90 mW m−2). The average heat flow in CPC and the low heat generation (less than 1 μW m−3) indicate that a relatively large amount of heat flows upwards into the crust which is generally quite cool. Until two million years ago the Explorer plate underthrust this part of the American plate, carrying crustal material into the mantle. Melted crustal rocks have produced the inland Pemberton and Garibaldi volcanic belts in the CPC.
Meager Mountain, a volcanic complex in the CPC 150 km north of Vancouver, is a possible geothermal energy resource. It is the product of intermittent activity over a period of 4 My, the most recent eruption being the Bridge River Ash 2440 y B.P. The original explosive eruption produced extensive fracturing in the granitic basement, and a basal explosion breccia from the surface of a cold brittle crust. This breccia may be a geothermal reservoir. Other volcanic complexes in the CPC have a similar potential for geothermal energy.
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Earth Physics Contribution No. 704.
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Lewis, T.J., Judge, A.S. & Souther, J.G. Possible geothermal resources in the Coast Plutonic Complex of southern British Columbia, Canada. PAGEOPH 117, 172–179 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00879744
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00879744