Heat Flow in Continental Rift Zones: A New Approach to Data Interpretation

This paper is concerned with the distribution of heat flow in the Baikal Rift Zone, the Shanxi-Liaohe Rift, the Jordan Rift, and in the Orly (Storoya) Trough in the northern Svalbard plate, as well as in the rift zone of Iceland. One notes an asymmetry in heat flow about the rift axial line compared with adjacent areas upon the background of its higher value. The origin of this asymmetry is due, not only to differences in the permeability of the faults in the sides of the rift structure, but also to planet-wide factors, in particular, the Coriolis force. The north–south rift structures considered here are situated in the northern hemisphere; their eastern flanksshow increased heat flow compared with the western flanks, and this is in agreement with the Coriolis force vector in the Earth’s northern hemisphere. The geothermal asymmetry in oceanic crustal divergent zones as noted previously is also seen in pull-apart structures of continental rift zones.