Development of a Pogo-Mode Thermal Blanket for Bare Rock Heat Flow Measurements

9617455 Johnson这个探索性研究（SGER）小额资助项目将负责建造一个能够测量海底未沉积的新火山区域热流的仪器。新的热流仪器将从水面舰艇上部署，并具有将热通量数据实时传输到舰艇的能力。在洋中脊扩展中心附近的裸露岩石上测量热流已被证明是可能的，但由于热液地下循环引起的变化，这些单数据点的测量结果难以解释。使用拟议的水面舰船可部署工具，热流数据的密集空间覆盖将使我们能够超越孤立的单一测量。在脊轴上有许多紧密间隔的热流站，就有可能确定扩散流体上升流的区域，对这些区域的地壳形成总热量进行定量估计，并确定这些能量如何在对流和传导之间分配。虽然开发“可在水面舰艇上部署”的热流毯存在不确定性，但能够回答这些长期存在的科学问题的潜在好处是巨大的。

9617455 Johnson This Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) project will undertake to build an instrument capable of measuring heat flow in the unsedimented, neo-volcanic regions of the sea floor. The new heat flow instrument will be deployable from a surface ship, and have the capability of transferring thermal flux data to the ship in real time. Heat flow measurements at bare rock exposures near mid-ocean ridge spreading centers have been shown to be possible using a submersible, but these single-data-point measurements are difficult to interpret, due to the variability caused by sub-surface circulation of hydrothermal fluid. The dense spatial coverage of heat flow data possible using the proposed surface-ship deployable tool would allow us to move beyond isolated single measurements. With a number of closely- spaced heat flow stations at a ridge axis, it would be possible to identify zones of diffuse fluid upwelling, make quantitative estimates of the total heat of crustal formation in these areas, and determine how this energy is partitioned between convection and conduction. While there is uncertainty associated with the development of a heat flow blanket that is 'surface-ship deployable', the potential benefit of being able to answer these long-standing scientific questions is substantial.