U.S.-Mexico Cooperative Research: Heat Flow/Basement Depth Studies for the Ocean Crust in the Western Gulf of Mexico

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This award will support a research collaboration between a group headed by Prof. John Sclater of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Prof. Ricardo Fernandez of the Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y Educacion Superior de Ensenada (CICESE) of Mexico. The purpose of the collaboration is to study the relation between heat flow and depth in the Gulf of Mexico. The old ocean floor of the western Gulf of Mexico has the lowest heat flow observed through oceanic crust. Most researchers have ignored these data, which was collected in the 60's, attributing the low values to unusually rapid sedimentation or to non-linear thermal gradients. However, a re-analysis of much of the data suggests that the role of non-linear gradients has been exaggerated and that much of the data may be reliable. For this project, the investigators intend to carry out detailed heat flow surveys around two sites in the Gulf of Mexico, make individual measurements on a transect between the two sites, analyze these data, and determine whether it supports the thermal boundary layer model indicated by the earlier measurements.