Abstract
Rock thermal conductivity is an essential parameter for the determination of heat flow of the Earth and geothermal modelling studies. It has important applications in hydrocarbon exploration, geothermal energy and geo-engineering investigations. We report thermal conductivity measurements of 55 core samples of Deccan flood basalt recovered from four boreholes KBH-1, KBH-5, KBH-6 and KBH-7 drilled in Koyna–Warna region of the western Deccan Volcanic Province (DVP). The cores represent a substantial thickness of the deep, unexposed sections of the Deccan basalt formation and allow sampling of the full spectrum of the compositional variations in the lava flows starting from the earliest flows in the region. We compare the data with those reported earlier from other parts of the DVP as well as with other continental flood basalt provinces worldwide. The salient results are as follows. (1) Thermal conductivity of flood basalts from the Koyna–Warna region fall in a relatively narrow range 1.29–1.87 Wm−1K−1 with a mean of 1.61±0.13 (SD) Wm−1K−1. When compared with massive basalt, the vesicular/amygdaloidal basalt samples show larger variability, likely due to the varying degrees of vesicularity and the composition of the secondary mineral fillings. (2) Thermal conductivity data obtained on a 1251-m long basalt core comprising 40 simple flows and 6 compound flows in the borehole KBH-7 yield a similar narrow range of 1.3–1.7 Wm−1K−1 and do not show any systematic trend with depth. (3) The conductivity range for basalts of the Koyna–Warna region is consistent with those reported previously from the northern, eastern and southeastern parts of the DVP including the Wardha–Yavatmal, Killari and Pune–Ahmednagar areas that expose basalt flows from different elevations and stratigraphic units. (4) The mean values of thermal conductivity of continental flood basalts from other flood basalt provinces worldwide such as Snake River Plain, Columbia River, Parana and Karoo are comparable to Deccan flood basalts.
Research Highlights
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Thermal conductivity of Deccan flood basalts from Koyna region varies in a relatively narrow range 1.29–1.87 Wm-1K-1 with a mean of 1.61±0.13 (SD) Wm-1K-1.
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Thermal conductivity data obtained on a 1251 m long, vertical, continuous basalt core do not show a systematic trend with depth.
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The data is consistent with those reported previously from other parts of Deccan Traps.
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Thermal conductivity data from continental flood basalt provinces worldwide including Columbia River, Parana, Karoo and Deccan Traps are comparable.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences for support and encouragement in carrying out scientific drilling studies in Koyna region, Maharashtra. Core drilling was carried out in association with CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad. Samples were collected from BGRL Core Repository, Karad. Satrughna Mishra provided invaluable support during laboratory data acquisition. Digant Vyas and Ashish Warhade helped with sampling and sample preparation. We thank Director, NCPOR for permission to use rock crushing facilities and Parijat Roy for help in the preparation of samples.
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Nagaraju Podugu: Designing of the research problem, literature survey, data generation, interpretation and manuscript preparation; Sukanta Roy: Drilling and sample collection, data interpretation and manuscript preparation.
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This article is part of the Topical Collection: Deccan Traps and other Flood Basalt Provinces – Recent Research Trends.
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Podugu, N., Roy, S. Thermal conductivity of Deccan flood basalts. J Earth Syst Sci 131, 112 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-022-01868-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-022-01868-3