Two-Dimensional Geothermal Model of the Peruvian Andes above the Nazca Ridge Subduction

Sara Ciattoni, Stefano Mazzoli, Antonella Megna, Matteo Basilici and Stefano Santini ()
Additional contact information
Sara Ciattoni: Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate (DiSPeA), Università di Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Via Aurelio Saffi, 2, 61029 Urbino, Italy
Stefano Mazzoli: Scuola di Scienze e Tecnologie, Sezione di Geologia, Università degli Studi di Camerino, Via Gentile III da Varano, 7, 62032 Camerino, Italy
Antonella Megna: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata, 605, 00143 Rome, Italy
Matteo Basilici: Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
Stefano Santini: Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate (DiSPeA), Università di Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Via Aurelio Saffi, 2, 61029 Urbino, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: The aseismic Nazca Ridge produces localized flat-slab subduction beneath the South American margin at latitudes 10° to 15° S. The geological evolution and the spatio-temporal pattern of deformation of the upper plate have been strongly influenced by the presence of the flat slab. In this study, we investigated the lithospheric thermal structure of this region by elaborating a 2D geothermal model along a section across the top of the Nazca Ridge, the Peru–Chile trench, the Andean Cordillera, and the Amazonian Basin, for a total length of 1000 km. For the sake of modelling, the crust of the overriding plate was subdivided into two parts, i.e., a sedimentary cover (including the entire lithostratigraphic sequence) and a crystalline basement. Applying an analytical methodology, we calculated geotherms and isotherms by setting (i) thickness, (ii) density, (iii) heat production, and (iv) thermal conductivity for each geological unit and considering (v) heat flux at the Moho, (vi) frictional heating produced by faults, and (vii) plate convergence rate. The resulting model could make a significant advance in our understanding of how flat slab geometry associated with the Nazca Ridge subduction affects the thermal structure and hence the tectonic evolution of the region.

Keywords: subduction zones; slab geometry; thermal structure; heat flow; isotherms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/23/7697/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/23/7697/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:23:p:7697-:d:1284888

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().