Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
  Petroleum Geoscience   Email Content Delivery
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Petroleum Geoscience; December 2000; v. 6; no. 4; p. 299-307
© 2000 Geological Society of London
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lin, G.
Right arrow Articles by Deming, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

Articles

Thermal buffering of sedimentary basins by basement rocks: implications arising from numerical simulations

Guichang Lin1, Jeffrey A. Nunn1 and David Deming2

1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA (e-mail:jeff{at}geol.lsu.edu)
2 School of Geology and Geophysics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019-0628, USA (e-mail:ddeming{at}ou.edu)

The Earth’s crust releases or absorbs heat energy in response to changes in the thermal regime. Numerical simulations of basin-scale heat transport which use the sediment–basement interface as a thermal boundary assume that near-surface temperature changes have no effect on basement rocks and vice versa (unbuffered model). We test this assumption by comparing numerical models of transient fluid flow and heat transport in the Arkoma foreland basin with and without thermal buffering by basement rocks. Thermal buffering by basement rocks reduces cooling (by fresh water recharge) of deep basin sediments near the fold–thrust belt and reduces warming (by upward fluid discharge) of basin margin sediments. The unbuffered model predicts a temporary warming of basin margin sediments which is largely an artefact of the model thermal boundary conditions. In all cases, the buffered model produces no significant thermal transient. Exaggerated temperature predictions also can occur in numerical simulations of uplift and erosion or heat refraction.

KEYWORDS: heat transfer, basin, fluid flow, mathematical model, burial history, subsurface temperature






JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by Geological Society of London