In-situ observations from temperature gradient measurements are sparse and go along with several uncertainties like climatic changes or hydrothermal circulation (Burton-Johnson et al., 2020).To establish continent-wide heat flow models, one must refer to indirect methods using geophysical or geological data. The results differ immensely, for example, between magnetic and seismological data (e.g., An et al., 2015b;Martos et al., 2017), and the underlying assumptions cannot be easily combined (Lösing et al., 2020). While these different approaches usually take the respective sensitivity ranges into account, simplifications like a definition of laterally constant thermal parameters are not considered in the assessment. Recently, Shen et al. (2020) demonstrated how an updated seismic tomography model completely changed the estimated GHF and its uncertainties compared to earlier studies by Shapiro and Ritzwoller (2004). In ice-covered regions, different geophysical models show no consensus on magnitude and spatial distribution of heat flow (Rezvanbehbahani et al., 2019;Van Liefferinge, 2018).
Geothermal heat flux under the Antarctic ice is one of the least known parameters. Different methods (based on e.g., magnetic or seismic data) have been applied in recent years to quantify the thermal structure and the geothermal heat flux, resulting in vastly different estimates. In this study, we use a Bayesian Monte-Carlo-Markov-Chain approach to explore the consistency of such models and to which degree lateral variations of the thermal parameters are required. Hereby, we evaluate the input from different lithospheric models and how they influence surface heat flux. We demonstrate that both Curie isotherm and heat production are dominating parameters for the thermal calculation and that use of incorrect models or sparsely available data lead to unreliable results. As an alternative approach, geological information should be coupled with geophysical data analysis, as we demonstrate for the Antarctic Peninsula.
Summary By combining gravity and magnetic data in a joint inversion approach, three-dimensional information on the crustal structure of Wilkes Land, East Antarctica, is obtained and possible geological features become evident. Both data sets are combined through a coupling method which decreases the variation of information so data misfit and model dissimilarity are minimized simultaneously. In this manner, statistically compatible inversion results are obtained. The suitability of the method is demonstrated through a synthetic example using magnetic data and pseudogravity. Subsequently, we apply the method to gravity residuals and magnetic data and identify matching features of high magnitude density and susceptibility. Prominent structures in NW - SE direction along the edge of the Mawson craton and at the presumed Australo-Antarctic and Indo-Antarctic terrane boundaries are enhanced. Given the structural similarity between inverted susceptibility and density, and a strong indication of a parameter relationship, we suggest a clustering approach in order to differentiate distinct groups with similar parameter properties. The spatial distribution of these clusters reveals possible geological structures that agree with previous two-dimensional studies and rock measurements from the Indian and Australian continents. This shows that the variation of information joint inversion is a convenient approach for remote regions like East Antarctica with sparse geological samples.
Abstract. We compile and analyze all available geothermal heat flow measurements collected in and around Greenland into a new database of 419 sites and generate an accompanying spatial map. This database includes 290 sites previously reported by the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC), for which we now standardize measurement and metadata quality. This database also includes 129 new sites, which have not been previously reported by the IHFC. These new sites consist of 88 offshore measurements and 41 onshore measurements, of which 24 are subglacial. We employ machine learning to synthesize these in situ measurements into a gridded geothermal heat flow model that is consistent across both continental and marine areas in and around Greenland. This model has a native horizontal resolution of 55 km. In comparison to five existing Greenland geothermal heat flow models, our model has the lowest mean geothermal heat flow for Greenland onshore areas. Our modeled heat flow in central North Greenland is highly sensitive to whether the NGRIP (North GReenland Ice core Project) elevated heat flow anomaly is included in the training dataset. Our model's most distinctive spatial feature is pronounced low geothermal heat flow (< 40 mW m−2) across the North Atlantic Craton of southern Greenland. Crucially, our model does not show an area of elevated heat flow that might be interpreted as remnant from the Icelandic plume track. Finally, we discuss the substantial influence of paleoclimatic and other corrections on geothermal heat flow measurements in Greenland. The in situ measurement database and gridded heat flow model, as well as other supporting materials, are freely available from the GEUS Dataverse (https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/F9P03L; Colgan and Wansing, 2021).
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