New heat flow determination in northern Tarim Craton, northwest China

Tarim Craton is a Precambrian block situated in northwest China, just north of the Tibetan Plateau, where a large sedimentary basin with abundant hydrocarbon potential has developed. Accurate heat flow data for Tarim is vital for understanding the lithospheric evolution and hydrocarbon generation in this area; however, there were unavailable until now, due to a lack of high quality steady-state temperature logging data. Here, we report 10 new heat flow values derived from steady-state temperature logging and measured thermal conductivity data. New heat flow values range from 40.1 to 49.4 mW m−2, with a mean of 43.1 ± 3.0 mW m−2. In addition, radiogenic heat production from the sediments accounts for 20 per cent of the observed surface heat flow, whilst the mantle heat flow is estimated to be as low as 6–15 mW m−2; this indicates a dominant contribution from crustal heat, to the observed heat flow. The average heat flow and crustal temperature in the Tarim Craton are markedly lower than those in the Tibetan Plateau, whilst the calculated rheological strength of the lithosphere, beneath Tarim, is sufficiently large to resist the elevation-induced gravitational potential energy difference between Tarim and Tibet. This inherited thermal and rheological contrast, between the craton and Plateau, can be traced back to before the India–Asia collision; this accounts for the differential active deformation pattern in the Tarim Craton and adjacent areas.