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Anomalous heat flow belt along the continental margin of Brazil

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Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of thermal gradient and heat flow data was carried out for sedimentary basins situated in the continental margin of Brazil (CMB). The results point to the existence of a narrow belt within CMB, where temperature gradients are higher than 30 °C/km and the heat flow is in excess of 70 mW/m2. This anomalous geothermal belt is confined between zones of relatively low to normal heat flow in the adjacent continental and oceanic regions. The width of the belt is somewhat variable, but most of it falls within the range of 100–300 km. The spatial extent is relatively large in the southern (in the basins of Pelotas, Santos and Campos) and northern (in the basins of Potiguar and Ceará) parts, when compared with those in the central parts (in the basins of South Bahia, Sergipe and Alagoas). The characteristics of heat flow anomalies appear to be compatible with those produced by thermal sources at depths in the lower crust. Hence, magma emplacement at the transition zone between lower crust and upper mantle is considered the likely mechanism producing such anomalies. Seismicity within the belt is relatively weak, with focal depths less than 10 km for most of the events. Such observations imply that “tectonic bonding” between continental and oceanic segments, at the transition zone of CMB, is relatively weak. Hence, it is proposed that passive margins like CMB be considered as constituting a type of plate boundary that is aseismic at sub-crustal levels, but allows for escape of significant amounts of earth’s internal heat at shallow depths.

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Acknowledgements

The third author of this paper has been a recipient of a postgraduate scholarship granted by Coordination for Higher Education (CAPES), during the period March 2016 to March 2017. We thank Dr. Joao dos Anjos, Director of National Observatory-ON/MCTI (Rio de Janeiro) for institutional support.

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  1. Observatório Nacional, ON/MCT, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Valiya M. Hamza, Fabio P. Vieira & Raquel T. A. Silva

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  1. Valiya M. Hamza
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Correspondence to Valiya M. Hamza.

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Hamza, V.M., Vieira, F.P. & Silva, R.T.A. Anomalous heat flow belt along the continental margin of Brazil. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 107, 19–33 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-017-1503-8

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