On apatite fission-track analysis and heat transfer processes in the upper crust
Chapter 1 presents fission-track data from detrital apatites recovered from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 116 cores of distal Bengal Fan sediments. Mean track kengths of samples from the upper 820 m of sediment penetrated at Site 717, and the upper 560 m of sediment penetrated at Site 718, range from 14.4 to 14.8 {mu}m and are diagnostic of rapidly cooled cource areas. Mean track lengths from the lowermost 400 m of sediment penetrated at Site 718 decrease monotonically from 14.6 to 13.2 {mu}m and indicate bottom-hole paleo-temperatures of at least 50C. Chapter 2 applies numerical models of time-dependent heat transfer to characterize the thermal history of sediments at the ODP sites. Results indicate that upward movement of pore fluids at velocities of 3 to 9 mm/yr are capable of explaining the fission-track data at Site 718 and elevated seafloor heat flow in this area. Available data suggests that anomalous thermal structure in the central Indian Ocean may represent a joint response to compaction-driven dewatering of the Bengal Fan and local enhancement of vertical permeability due to intraplate deformation. Chapter 3 applies a stochastic inversion approach (simulated annealing) to quantify the thermal history information contained in synthetic apatite fission-track data. This approach indicates that temperature resolution is no better than {plus minus} 10C. Chapter 4 presents apatite fission-track data from surface and subsurface samples of Oligocene strata from the South Texas Coastal Plain. The data are used to evaluate apatite fission-track annealing models and should be amenable to analysis by inverse modeling to obtain better estimates of empirical parameters in these models.
- Research Organization:
- Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 6092822
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
APATITES
FISSION TRACKS
CONTINENTAL CRUST
HEAT TRANSFER
ACCURACY
COASTAL REGIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DEPTH
DRILL CORES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
HEAT FLOW
INDIAN OCEAN
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PALEOTEMPERATURE
RESERVOIR FLUIDS
SEA BED
SEDIMENTS
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
TEXAS
THERMAL ANALYSIS
TIME DEPENDENCE
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DIMENSIONS
EARTH CRUST
ENERGY TRANSFER
EVALUATION
FEDERAL REGION VI
FLUIDS
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
PARTICLE TRACKS
PHOSPHATE MINERALS
SEAS
SURFACE WATERS
USA
580000* - Geosciences
540211 - Environment
Terrestrial- Basic Studies- Radiometric Techniques- (1990-)