Heat flow and thermal regime in the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California: Estimates of conductive and advective heat transport

Heat flow is estimated at eight sites drilled int the Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California, during the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 385. The expedition sought to understand the thermal regime of the basin and heat transfer between off-axis sills intruding the organic-rich sediments of the Guaymas Basin, and the basin floor. The distinct sedimentation rates, active tectonics, and magmatism make the basin interesting for scientific discoveries. Results show that sedimentation corrected heat flow values range 119–221 mW/m² in the basin and 257–1003 mW/m² at the site of a young sill intrusion, denominated Ringvent. Thermal analysis shows that heat in the Guaymas Basin is being dissipated by conduction for plate ages >0.2 Ma, whereas younger plate ages are in a state of transient cooling by both conduction and advection. Drilling sites show that Ringvent is an active sill being cooled down slowly by circulating fluids with discharge velocities of 10–200 mm/yr. Possible recharge sites are located ca. 1 km away from the sill's border. Modelling of the heat output at Ringvent indicates a sill thickness of ca. 240 m. A simple order-of-magnitude model predicts that relatively small amounts of magma are needed to account for the elevated heat flow in non-volcanic, sediment-filled rifts like the central and northern Gulf of California in which heating of the upper crust is achieved via advection by sill emplacement and hydrothermal circulation. Multiple timescales of cooling control the crustal, chemical and biological evolution of the Guaymas Basin. Here, we recognize at least four timescales: the time interval between intrusions (ca. 10³ yr), the thermal relaxation time of sills (ca. 10⁴ yr), the characteristic cooling time of the sediments (ca. 10⁵ yr), and the cooling of the entire crust at geologic timescales.