Relationship Between Heat Flows and Geological Structures in the Sichuan Basin, P.R. China

Abstract

Based on an extensive data collectionand analysis, this research has provided reliable representations of features of the geothermal fields, their heat flow, and relationships with geological structures in the Sichuan Basin, isotherms below a depth of mshow high values in the Central Uplift and the Southwest Uplift, and low valin the Northwest and Southeast Depressions. These features probably indicate undulation of crystalline basement and structural depression. At depths greater than m, the isotherms tend to become simpler and regionalized. The mean heat flow in the basin is 69. In the Central Uplift, the Northwest Depression and the East of the basin, heat-flow values range from 58.6 to 71.2 with a mean value of 66. In the south and southwest, it varies from 76.6 to 100.5 with a mean value of 86. High heat-flow values occur within the uplift of the crystalline basement in the southwest Sichuan, and the heat flow decreasesfrom the south, through the central area, to the northwest.