Distribution of heat flow and radioactive heat generation in northern Mexico

Abstract

Twenty‐five new heat flow measurements from northern Mexico range from 0.6 HFU (1 HFU = 1 μcal/cm2s = 41.8 mW/m2) at Los Plomosas, Chihuahua, to 4.2 HFU about 30 km east of Mazatlan, Sinaloa. The new values, in conjunction with previous data, confirm the Baja peninsula as an area of low to normal heat flow and demonstrate an irregular decrease of heat flow eastward from the Gulf of California across the Sierra Madre Occidental and a separate pattern of decreasing heat flow eastward from the Central Plateau across the Sierra Madre Oriental. An area of high heat flow immediately east of the Gulf of Calfornia is identified and is tentatively related to the spreading ridges in the gulf. Abundances of the radioactive‐heat‐generating elements uranium, thorium, and potassium increase from Baja California to the eastern border of the Sierra Madre Occidental, abruptly decrease within the Central Plateau, and then increase again eastward through the Sierra Madre Oriental. Although a general positive correlation between heat flow and radioactive heat generation is observed, adherance to the expected linear patterns cannot be demonstrated. This lack of linearity prohibits the definition of separate thermal provinces in northern Mexico and suggests the assignment of the Sierra Madre Occidental as a southerly extension of the Basin and Range thermal province that is modified by sea floor spreading in the Gulf of California. Heat flow measurements in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas are similar to those associated with the Rio Grande Rift thermal anomaly in New Mexico, but an identification of a continuous extension of the rift thermal conditions into northern Mexico cannot be made.