A region of uniform heat flow in the North Atlantic

Abstract

Heat flow was determined at sixteen stations regularly spaced over a region of the North American basin between Bermuda and the Bahama Banks. The results show a remarkable uniformity of heat flow in this area, which measures about 800 by 900 km. The mean heat flow at the sixteen stations is 1.14 μcal/cm2 sec, with a standard deviation of 0.06. When allowance is made for experimental errors the actual standard deviation of heat flow in the region is estimated to be only 4½ per cent. Another measurement made at the southern edge of this area, near the Puerto Rico trench, showed a heat flow of 1.76 μcal/cm2 sec, while three measurements made a few hundred km to the northwest, close to the continental slope, gave values of 117, 0.94, and 0.81 μcal/cm2 sec.