Heat-flow data in the Four Corners area suggest Neogene crustal warming resulting from partial lithosphere replacement in the Colorado Plateau interior, southwest USA

Research Article| July 01, 2014 Heat-flow data in the Four Corners area suggest Neogene crustal warming resulting from partial lithosphere replacement in the Colorado Plateau interior, southwest USA Marshall Reiter Marshall Reiter † New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Emeritus, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA †E-mail: mreiter@nmt.edu Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Marshall Reiter † New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Emeritus, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA †E-mail: mreiter@nmt.edu Publisher: Geological Society of America Received: 24 Jun 2013 Revision Received: 12 Feb 2014 Accepted: 24 Mar 2014 First Online: 08 Mar 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2674 Print ISSN: 0016-7606 © 2014 Geological Society of America GSA Bulletin (2014) 126 (7-8): 1084–1092. https://doi.org/10.1130/B30951.1 Article history Received: 24 Jun 2013 Revision Received: 12 Feb 2014 Accepted: 24 Mar 2014 First Online: 08 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Permissions Search Site Citation Marshall Reiter; Heat-flow data in the Four Corners area suggest Neogene crustal warming resulting from partial lithosphere replacement in the Colorado Plateau interior, southwest USA. GSA Bulletin 2014;; 126 (7-8): 1084–1092. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/B30951.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract The uplift of the Colorado Plateau is of great geologic interest, and low-noise terrestrial heat-flow data can provide boundary conditions that should be met by proposed models of uplift. The structural continuity of the plateau interior with respect to the neighboring Basin and Range and Southern Rocky Mountains implies a distinctive Neogene lithosphere-crustal evolution. The Four Corners area represents a unique location in the Colorado Plateau interior, and likely the world, where both heat-flow data with little variability, and mineralogy studies relating to pre-Neogene lithosphere temperatures, are available. Together these studies allow one to calculate data-derived heat-flow values at two different times, ca. 25 Ma and the present. Using a first-order model for temperature-depth profiles, these two heat-flow values imply ∼100 km of Neogene lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) shallowing in the study area. If crustal radiogenic heat remains constant, the calculated Neogene increase in heat flow of ∼17 mW m–2 will be produced below the Moho. Several mechanisms are considered that might cause the LAB to shallow and the near-surface heat flow to increase. Derived Neogene lithosphere thinning of ∼100 km leads one to consider lithosphere displacement of the same order. If the presented finite-difference model approximates Neogene thermal phenomena in the Four Corners, then partial lithosphere replacement of the upper-mantle lithosphere appears to be the most suitable cause of the heat-flow rise in the area, as well as the near-uniform heat flow over large regions of the plateau interior identified by low-noise heat-flow data. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.