Australian Regional Heat Flow Measurements and Contour Maps

Twenty new heat-flow values from sites across Australia are combined with published land and marine data to produce contour maps of heat flux. The data, presented by the Australian Ocean Data Network, shows a pattern of low heat flow (30-60 mW m^-2) across most of the continent and higher heat flow (70-100 mW m^-2) in eastern regions. The dataset was last updated on 2026-06 04.

Use Cases

• Mapping regional geothermal gradients based on the heat flux contour maps.
• Correlating heat flow with seismic data based on the described P-wave travel-time residuals.
• Investigating crustal age and craton boundaries based on the low heat-flow patterns in old crustal areas.
• Analyzing the relationship between upper-mantle velocity and surface heat flow based on the described negative correlation.

Strengths

• Includes twenty new heat-flow measurements combined with published data.
• Provides contour maps covering a defined region (90-170°E, 0-45°S).
• Identifies clear regional patterns, with low heat flow (30-60 mW m^-2) in most areas and higher values (70-100 mW m^-2) in eastern Australia.

Limitations

• Data distribution is described as 'not good enough' to accurately delineate boundaries between high and low heat-flow regimes.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Combination of twenty new measurements with published land and marine data.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 06:11:24.208583; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian continent and surrounding marine area (90-170°E, 0-45°S)