Crustal structure of the mid-ocean ridges: 5. Heat flow through the Atlantic Ocean floor and convection currents

Abstract

One hundred and seventy-nine Lamont Geological Observatory heat-flow measurements in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea are presented; their reliability is carefully estimated. Together with 197 other measurements, they are used to describe the broad regional pattern of heat flow in the Atlantic Ocean. The average heat flow over the mid-Atlantic ridge is within 20% of the heat flow of the basins, and the absence of a wide heat-flow maximum in the observed values precludes the possibility of continuous continental drift during the Ceno-zoic by the spreading-floor mechanism in the Atlantic Ocean. In contrast, the excess of heat flow measured over the East Pacific rise is consistent with the existence of large convective transfer of heat in the underlying mantle.