9: Models of an extending lithosphere and heat flow in the Basin and Range province

Reduced heat flow in the Basin and Range province is characteristically greater by 50% to 100% than that in stable regions; in the hotter subprovinces like the Battle Mountain High, it is greater by 300%. Evidence for distributed tectonic extension and magmatism throughout the province suggests that much of the anomalous heat is transferred from the asthenosphere by convection in the lithosphere, in the solid state by stretching, and in the magmatic state by intrusion. Simple steady-state thermomechanical models of these processes yield relations among reduced heat flow, asthenosphere flux, lithosphere thickness, extension rate, and basalt production by the asthenosphere....