Heat and Groundwater Flow through Continental Flood Basalt Provinces: Insights Gained from Alternative Models of Permeability/Depth Relationships for the Columbia Plateau, USA

Abstract:

Heat-flow mapping of the western USA has identified an apparent low-heat-flow anomaly coincident with the Columbia Plateau Regional Aquifer System, a thick sequence of basalt aquifers within the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). A heat and mass transport model (SUTRA) was used to evaluate the potential impact of groundwater flow on heat flow along two different regional groundwater flow paths. Limited in situ permeability (k) data from the CRBG are compatible with a steep permeability decrease (~3.5 orders of magnitude) at 600-900 m depth and ~40^oC. Numerical simulations incorporating this permeability decrease demonstrate that regional groundwater flow can explain lower-than-expected heat flow in these highly anisotropic (k_x/k_z ~10⁴) continental flood basalts. Simulation results indicate that the abrupt reduction in permeability at ~600 m depth results in an equivalently abrupt transition from a shallow region where heat flow is affected by groundwater flow to a deeper region of conduction-dominated heat flow. Abrupt k decreases at similar temperatures have also been observed in the volcanic rocks of the adjacent Cascade Range volcanic arc and at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, where they result from low-temperature hydrothermal alteration. Because pore filling hydrothermal minerals are largely controlled by the major mineral assemblages of the volcanic rocks, other continental flood basalt provinces may also have large permeability changes at depths corresponding to ~40^oC.