AUTHOR=Baykiev Eldar , Guerri Mattia , Fullea Javier TITLE=Integrating Gravity and Surface Elevation With Magnetic Data: Mapping the Curie Temperature Beneath the British Isles and Surrounding Areas JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science VOLUME=6 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2018.00165 DOI=10.3389/feart.2018.00165 ISSN=2296-6463 ABSTRACT=

In this work, we study the lithospheric structure of the British Isles using a methodology that allows for forward modeling of the Curie temperature depth based on seismic, elevation and gravity observations within an integrated geophysical-petrological approach (LitMod3D). We compute 3D thermal models and self-consistently determine the density in the mantle based on temperature, pressure, and bulk composition. Finally, we derive Curie temperature depth maps and forward calculate magnetic anomalies at the airborne level (5 km altitude) using a spherical magnetic modeling software (magnetic tesseroids) to estimate the geothermal magnetic signal. Our results show lateral lithospheric variations across the model domain, with Great Britain being characterized in general by thicker and colder lithosphere, especially in the south-east, and the thinnest and warmest lithosphere being located beneath west Scotland, Northern Ireland and in the north-west oceanic area. Our estimated Curie temperature depth map resembles the values obtained using other techniques (spectral method and surface heat flow inversion) in some areas, but discrepancies are notable in general. We determine that the effect of typical lateral temperature variations (i.e., Curie isotherm depth) accounts for 5–15%, on average, and up to 70% locally of the crustal magnetic signal at the airborne level. Our lithospheric models are in general agreement with published seismic tomography models as well as other geophysical studies.