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Heat flow in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic

Abstract

The present-day heat flow from the Earth has commonly been used to estimate the abundance of heat-producing isotopes within the Earth. However, if heat flow has a variability on a short time scale (compared with the isotopic decay times), then the present-day heat flow must be seen as a much coarser measure of the Earth's heat-producing isotopic content. We report here the results of an investigation into the likely variation in terrestrial heat flow over the past 180 Myr.

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Sprague, D., Pollack, H. Heat flow in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Nature 285, 393–395 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285393a0

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