Constraints on rift thermal processes from heat flow and uplift

Abstract

The implications of heat flow data available from five major Cenozoic continental rift systems for the processes of continental rifting are discussed, and simple thermal models of lithospheric thinning which predict uplift are used to further constrain the thermal processes in the lithosphere during rifting. Compilations of the heat flow data are summarized and the salient results of these compilations are briefly discussed. The uplift predictions of the slow and rapid thinning models, in which thinning is assumed to occur at a respectively slower and faster rate than heat can be conducted into the lithosphere, are presented. Comparison of uplift rates with model results indicates that the lithosphere is in a state between the two models. While uplift is predicted to continue after thinning has ceased due to thermal relaxation of the lithosphere, the rapid thinning model is always predicted to apply to surface heat flow, and an anomaly in this flow is not predicted to develop until after thinning has stopped.