Heat flow across the toe of accretionary prisms — The role of fluid flux

Abstract

Compaction‐driven fluid flow in accretionary prisms is ineffective in changing heat flow across the lower slope, even when the rate of fluid flow is greatly enhanced by hydrofracturing, as results of numerical analysis show. For most faults which are long relative to their thickness, conductive heat loss to the wall rock is much more effective in heat transport than advective transport along the faults.