Heat-Flow Values from the South-Eastern Pacific

Abstract

Prior to these new measurements, twenty-five heat-fiow values from the Pacific Ocean Basin and eight from the Atlantic have been published¹. The surprising fact brought out by these measurements is the approximate equality of average heat flow of the oceanic and continental areas, about 1 × 10⁻⁶ cal./cm.² sec. This result was unexpected on the basis of values of radioactivity indicated for typical continental and oceanic crustal rocks existing near the Earth's surface. It has usually been assumed that most of the surface heat flow in continental regions must originate in the relatively thick and radioactive continental crust. Under the oceans, nearly all the average heat flow must come from the mantle beneath the relatively thin oceanic crust.