Eos, Vol. 77, No.
33, August 13, 1996
Eos, T R A N S A C T I O N S ,
EOS
Conductive Heat Flow Measured
in Unsedimented Regions
of the Seafloor
PAGES 321,324
H. Paul Johnson and Michael Hutnak
Traditional probes designed to measure
heat flow in oceanic crust only yield accu­
rate measurements where thick sediment
thermally isolates igneous basement rocks
from seawater. Since most regions of
younger crust lack this sediment cover, meas­
uring crustal heat flow in these areas presents
a challenge. A thermal blanket system that
simulates this sediment cover and allows
measurements to be taken in bare rock areas
was recently developed and tested, and the
results look promising.
Deployment of the thermal blanket on a
newly erupted pillow basalt flow on the Co-
Axial Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge indi­
cated that even 2 years after eruption,
2
approximately 2.25 W / m are being trans­
ferred from the summit of the flow to the over­
lying water column by conduction. Although
considerable local variability in heat flux is
expected for axial areas, integration of this
single-point measurement over the entire
area of the New Flow indicates that conduc­
tive heat flow could be on the same scale as
the output of a major high-temperature vent.
Convective heat transfer within the axial
zone of crustal formation covers a wide
range of flux rates. Narrowly focused high-
temperature (>300°C) vents and diffuse low-
temperature vents are the end members of
what is likely to be a continuous spectrum. Al­
though focused high-temperature vents are
visually impressive regions, with dense bio­
logical populations and rapid chemical
change, preliminary observations indicate
that diffuse low-temperature flow may be re­
sponsible for more than 80% of the actual
thermal flux associated with crustal forma­
tion [Stein and Stein, 1994; Schultz et al.,
1992]. In these estimates, the amount of heat
School of Oceanography, University of Wash­
ington, Seattle, W A 98195-7940
A M E R I C A N G E O P H Y S I C A L U N I O N
VOLUME 77 NUMBER 33
AUGUST 13.1996
PAGES 321-328
thermal noise in the temperature gradient
measurements, and the resulting horizontal
advection requires that the insulating mate­
rial be tightly coupled to the seafloor.
Prototype Thermal Blanket
To evaluate conductive heat flow in the
unsedimented zone of new oceanic crust, a
prototype thermal blanket was deployed at
the CoAxial Segment of the Juan de Fuca
Ridge in September 1995. This thermal blan­
2
ket was approximately 3 m in area and used
transferred from the crust to seawater by con­ 5-cm thick, open-cell urethane foam for insu­
duction through the surficial volcanic rocks is lation. The water-saturated foam pad sepa­
assumed to be negligible, but this assumption rated two matched thermistor strings. The
has never been tested. individual sensors of each pair were located
The traditional method used for measur­ on the opposite sides of the insulation. These
ing heat flow within a solid is to determine 10 thermistor pairs were electrically wired so
the temperature gradient occurring across an that the opposing sensors gave the differen­
insulating material of known thermal conduc­ tial temperature directly, and they were cali­
tivity. In unsedimented areas of the seafloor, brated using a known heat flow source in a
this insulation must be artificially applied as laboratory tank. In addition to the differential
part of the experiment [Kinoshita, 1996]. Hy­ pairs, four unpaired thermistors were added
drostatic pressures prohibit the use of tradi­ to the top of the blanket to record variations
tional insulating materials containing gases in the bottom water temperature. For me­
or voids, and the rough bottom topography chanical integrity, the foam blanket was to­
and high level of expected variability re­ tally encased in a thin impermeable
quires that this insulating blanket be large, urethane protective cloth, which laboratory
flexible, and mechanically robust. Further, tests showed had negligible effect on the ther­
bottom tidal currents can induce substantial mal conductivity of the blanket.
Fig. 1. Laboratory
measurements of ther­
mal conductivity as a
function of heat flow for
the methane foam used
as insulation in the ther­
mal blanket. Data
points are shown as as­
terisks, the smooth line
is the best-fit curve de­
scribed in the text. The
measured thermal con­
ductivity ofnonconvec-
ting water without the
Ao ]
foamis0.6Wm C
/Snelgrove and Forster,
1996] This value is only
approached for ex­
tremely low heat flow
values, indicating that
small-scale convection
is occurring within the
0.8 1
individual foam cells for Hea* Flow in W / m ^
most geophysically rele­
vant thermal fluxes.
This page may be freely copied.
 Eos, Vol. 77, No. 33, August 13, 1996

Fig. 2. Cartoon Sandner, 1990] only for very low heat flow val­
showing the basic fea­ ues. The empirical relationship between heat
tures of the prototype flow and thermal conductivity for the blanket
thermal blanket, in­ b
foam can be described by K = A Q , where K
cluding the insulating is the thermal conductivity in units of W m"
foam (gray), the fluid- lo
C\ 2
Q is the heat flow in units of W m" , and
filled bags on the pe­ the best-fit experimental values of A and b are
riphery (saturated 0.889 and 0.2178, respectively. In Figure 1, the
CaCh solution, with empirical determination of the exponent b,
a density of 2 times which should be 1.0 for conductive heat flow
seawater) that pro­
transfer, is closer to the value of 1/5 than to
vide the necessary
the theoretical value of 1/3 expected for con­
thermal and mechani­
vection in a permeable media [Turcotteand
cal coupling of the
Schubert, 1982]. The reasons for this apparent
foam to the seafloor,
the sensor strips con­ discrepancy are not obvious, and the experi­
taining 10 pairs of mental data for the effective thermal conduc­
thermistors and 4 un­ tivity of the foam are of high quality.
paired thermistors The measured thermal conductivity of the
(top strip only), and foam shown in Figure 1 is similar to the range
the external data log­ of published values for basaltic rock (1.3 to
ger. The thermal blan­ lo _1
2.9 W m " C ) , a condition that represents the
ket was deployed by minimum disturbance to the thermal environ­
the submersible ment of the system by the blanket deploy­
ALV1N, with only the ment. For both the detailed calibration
data logger being re­ experiments and the field deployment, w e
covered after the
used commercially available urethane foam
7-day deployment.
purported to have 100 pores per inch, al­
2 2
though microscopic examination indicated
Calibration Experiments of 100 m W / m to 2 W / m . Experimental meas­
the actual cell density was closer to 85 pores
urements of the thermal conductivity of the
per inch.
Open-cell (water-saturated) urethane water-saturated foam using this calibration
foam is a nontraditional insulating material tank showed that it was nonlinear with re­
for experiments on the seafloor, and the ther­ spect to heat flow, an indication that small- Deployment on the Juan de Fuca
mal conductivity had to be determined em­ scale convection occurs within the Ridge
pirically. T o do this, w e constructed a large individual foam cells (Figure 1).
(2.4 x 2.4 m, 1.2-m d e e p ) heavily insulated The measured conductivity of the blanket In September 1995, the prototype blanket
tank with a calibrated electrical heat source foam in the calibration tank approached the (Figure 2) was deployed at the summit of the
in the base, which provided known heat flow published thermal conductivity of noncon- New Flow that erupted on the CoAxial Seg­
values over the geophysically relevant range
1
vecting water (0.6 W m ' ^ C ' ) [Grigull and ment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in June 1993
[Embley et al., 1995]. Several previous expedi­
3 i tions had observed ubiquitous hydrothermal
venting in the flow area immediately after
eruption. By the time of the 1995 thermal
blanket deployment, extensive water column
measurements and visual observations from
a remotely operated vehicle (the Navy ATV
vehicle in 1994) and submersible (ALVIN in
1994 and 1995; TURTLE in 1994) indicated
that the initial venting had ceased. Geologi­
cal observations from the submersible ALVIN
indicated that the summit of the New Flow
was composed of flat, unfissured, lobate pil­
lows, and although venting of hydrothermal
fluid was not apparent, small pockets of or­
ange-red sediment from previous hydrother­
mal activity were common in the area.
The thermal blanket was deployed at this
summit area using ALVIN after detailed vis­
ual inspection s h o w e d the rocks of the
blanket placement area to be d e v o i d of
0 -f 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 H 1 1 obvious surface cracks, fissures, vent de­
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 posits, or anomalous biological popula­
T i m e (minutes) tions. Unfortunately, a software failure in
the data logger limited data acquisition to a
Fig. 3. Measured heat flow from the summit of the New Flow from a thermistor pair of the ther­
mal blanket. Measurements are from the 2-hour period of data acquisition as the blanket ap­ period of only 2 hours after the blanket was
proaches thermal equilibrium after deployment. Data are consistent with a conductive heat deployed and the submersible had left the
2
flow value of 2.25 W/m from the summit of the New Flow on the CoAxial Segment of the Juan area. This last point is important, since the
de Fuca Ridge. nearby motion of the submersible in the area

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produces a measurable temperature anom­
aly in the exposed thermistors on the top of
the blanket.
Although the 2-hour period of data acqui­
sition was short compared to the week-long
period that the blanket was deployed (1
w e e k ) or the original design deployment in­
terval (1 year), the data that were acquired
(Figure 3 ) indicate that the fundamental de­
sign for the thermal blanket is sound and that
useful data regarding conductive heat loss
can be obtained in a short period. Values of
the in situ differential temperature and the
thermal conductivity of the foam determined
from the laboratory calibrations indicate that
there is conductive heat flow of approxi­
2
mately 2.25 W / m at the summit of the New
Flow 2 years after the initial eruption. Calcula­
tion of the thermal diffusion distance ( L ) of
the rock [L2 = (thermal diffusivity)*(time)]
gives an approximation of the depth of the
thermal gradient sampled by the 7200-s meas­
urement period. The reasonable assumption
of a thermal diffusivity for basaltic rocks of ap­
6 2
proximately 10" m /s [Turcotte and Schubert,
1982] indicates that only the thermal gradi­
ent of the upper 9 cm of the basaltic seafloor
is being sampled during the 120 minutes of
data acquisition. Both theoretical and empiri­
cal estimates (Figure 3 ) for the foam indicate
that the thermal time constant for the blanket
is less than one-third of the 2-hour measure­
ment period.
Although the thermal blanket data repre­
sent only a single measurement of a small
area, and conductive flow in the axial region
Did Water Vapor Drive
Climate Cooling?
PAGES 322-323
In attempting to explain the abrupt and
drastic changes in global temperatures ob­
served during the late Quaternary period, it is
possible that atmospheric scientists and pa-
leoclimatologists are mistaking the impetus
of those changes for a mere amplifier. This is
the hypothesis of Wallace Broecker, who has
synthesized global climate observations in or­
der to assert that water vapor—and, particu­
larly, moisture levels arising in the
tropics—may be the only atmospheric com­
ponent capable of warming and cooling the
Earth on short notice. Broecker, a geochem-
ist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
presented his ideas in the Daly Lecture at the
AGU Spring Meeting.
That the Earth's climate made rapid,
global reversals during the last glacial period
is being more firmly established each year.
Ice cores from Greenland have revealed that
temperatures in the northern Atlantic Ocean
alternately jumped and dropped by several
Eos, Vol. 77, No. 33, August 13, 1996
is likely to be very nonuniform, integrating
6
this value over the entire 1.6 x 10 m area of
the New Flow produces a rough estimate of
3.6 megawatts of heat flux being transmitted
through the crust in the New Flow area by
conduction alone. Even if the assumptions in
this estimate are in error by an order of mag­
nitude, this value is comparable to those esti­
mated for individual high-temperature
hydrothermal vents [Macdonald et al., 1980;
Bemisetal., 1993] and for substantial areas
of diffuse convective flow [Schultz etai,
1992].
If, however, the New Flow has cooled to
the same thermal gradient present in the sur­
rounding older crustal rocks, as the submers­
ible and water column observations seem to
indicate, then the conductive heat flow value
may actually apply to the entire unsedi­
mented area of the ridge axis. While a single
point measurement of bare rock heat flow is
not an accurate estimate of general conduc­
tive heat flux at mid-ocean ridge spreading
centers, the initial data provided by the proto­
type thermal blanket seem to indicate that it
may be inappropriate to ignore conductive
heat loss in any thermal budget calculations
for crustal formation.
Acknowledgments: M. Yamano, D. Van
Patten, and an anonymous reviewer pro­
vided valuable suggestions to early drafts of
this manuscript. W. Chadwick provided the
measured surface area of the New Flow. Sup­
port for the thermal blanket development
was provided by NSF/SGER grant OCE-
degrees in mere decades; these rapid
changes are known as Dansgaard-Oeschger
(D-O) events. The ice cores gathered in
Greenland correlate with other cores ex­
tracted in New Zealand and Chile; with the
pollen record from Florida; with coastal sedi­
ments from the Santa Barbara basin; with an­
cient corals from Barbados; and with rock
varnish from the U.S. southwest. All show
the fingerprints of abrupt temperature
changes that extend well beyond the Atlantic
Ocean.
"Nobody has ever explained how Earth
ever got so cold during the glacial period,"
Broecker noted. Researchers have offered a
few explanations for the temperature swings:
changes in the sea level, increased or de­
creased ice albedo, or varying levels of heat-
trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon
dioxide have been suggested as triggers for
climate change. However, Broecker asserts
that none of these changes could occur rap­
idly enough to create the "global and fast"
changes observed in the climate record.
Other possibilities—such as changes in
dust, the Earth's orbital cycle, or in the en­
ergy output from the Sun—seem "unlikely"
or at least difficult for Broecker to believe.
This page may be freely copied.
9400326; deployment and data analysis was
supported by NSF grant OCE-9405078.
References
Bemis, K. G. R. P. Von Herzen, M. J. Mottl,
f
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"The multimillion dollar question is: what
drives these [temperature] changes?" said
James Kennett, an oceanographer from the
University of California, Santa Barbara. Ken­
nett has found evidence that Pacific Ocean
surface temperatures rose by at least 4°C
(and as much as 8°C) at the outset of four D-
O events. "The rapidity and intensity of the
changes strongly suggest greenhouse forcing.
The question is: what is the gas?"
Broecker relies on new evidence, gath­
ered by Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State Uni­
versity, suggesting that moisture levels in the
tropics dropped substantially during the last
Ice Age, and that average temperatures
fell with them. The i c e core record for
the tropical A n d e s indicates that snow
falling in glacial times had 8 % less oxy­
0
gen 18 than H o l o c e n e snowfall. The de­
creased concentration of this heavier oxygen
isotope suggests to Thompson and Broecker
that the atmosphere in the tropics contained
much less water vapor than it does today.
"The greenhouse impact of such a reduction
would cool the tropics by several degrees,"
Broecker asserted.
"Certainly, water vapor changes would
change the temperature in the atmosphere,"