Advances in the acquisition and processing of subseafloor temperature and pressure data and their interpretation in the context of convergent margin processes

Abstract

Subseafloor temperature and pore fluid pressure data can provide important constraints on most dynamic earth processes. Firstly, probes designed to measure formation temperatures and pressures in Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) boreholes - i.e. the third version of the Advanced Piston Corer Temperature probe (APCT-3), the Miniaturized Temperature Logger (MTL), and the Davis-Villinger Temperature and Pressure Probe (DVTPP) - are presented. Secondly, algorithms to estimate undisturbed formation values from transient data caused by the insertion of the different probes into the formation are developed. Finally, subseafloor temperature measurements with other geophysical and geological data are combined unsing a thermal finite element method model to study the temperature field at the subduction thrust fault of the 1992 Nicaragua tsunami earthquake and other processes at convergent margins.