Conductional heat transfer in magmatic intrusions

Abstract

The thermal effect that occurs due to the insertion of igneous intrusions in sedimentary basins has been widely investigated in different geological contexts, either to obtain more precise information about the development of the basin and or for the purpose of exploring and evaluating the mineral resources existing there. We can verify that the knowledge of the thermal gradient is fundamental in studies of heat distribution through means such as the Earth's crust or mantle, as this way, we obtain the thermal evolution of magmatic intrusions and adjacent rocks over geological time. For the present work, the determination of the temperature gradient and consequently the thermal evolution of a 13-meter-thick sill and adjacent rocks located in the Paraná Basin - Irati Formation, was obtained through the use of the one-dimensional heat dispersion model in transient regime of finite time, in which, in the spatial variable the numerical method of finite differences (FDM) is used and in the temporal variable the Euler method. Although in cases of large and thick magmatic bodies or sections that include the terrestrial lithospheric and asthenospheric mantles, the mechanism of convection and radiation has an expressive role in the energy transfer process. However, in most geological situations, conduction is the most important mechanism in the heat distribution process.