Heat flow in the Pannonian region

A new heat flow map of the Pannonian region is presented in this chapter based on the latest national heat flow databases, including that of the International Heat Flow Committee and other published heat flow maps. The heat flow in the Pannonian Basin s.s. is generally high (80-120 mW/m 2 ), and low in the peripherally positioned Vienna and Transylvanian Basins (50-70 and 40-50 mW/m 2 , respectively). Comparison with the updated depth of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary derived from receiver function analyses, shows that during the formation of the Carpathian-Pannonian system the lithosphere was more attenuated in the central basin segments than in the peripheral basins resulting in the anomalously high heat flow there. The surface heat flow is strongly depressed in recharge areas of karstic groundwater flow systems and increased in the discharge areas of the same systems. Groundwater flow occurring in porous-permeable sediments does not influence the heat flow significantly. However, the Neogene-Quaternary sedimentation depressed the heat flow by 10-20 mW/m 2 over the deep subbasins, especially in the southern basins, which were filled up just about 5 My ago. Pliocene to Quaternary volcanism increased the heat flow only in the calc-alkaline volcanic chain of the southern Eastern Carpathians..