Marine Geophysics

Effects on the results of seafloor heat flow measurements by probe tilt

  • XU Ziying ,
  • YANG Xiaoqiu ,
  • SHI Xiaobin ,
  • ZENG Xin ,
  • ZHAO Junfeng ,
  • YU Chuanhai
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  • 1. Key Laboratory of Marine Mineral Resources, Ministry of Land and Resources, Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, Guangzhou 510075, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China

Received date: 2015-09-01

  Online published: 2016-08-04

Supported by

National Natural Science Foundation of China (41106086, 41474065); The Key laboratory of Marine Mineral Resources, Ministry of Land and Resources (KLMMR-2013-A-10); The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA11040303); The Instrument Developing Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (YZ201136), and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (SQ201007); China Geological Survey Program (GZH201400202, 1212010611302); The National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (“863”Program) (2009AA09A201-05); The Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (MSGL09-08, MSGL12-08)

Abstract

It is well known that probe tilt is one of error sources of seafloor heat flow measurements. And the error can never be neglected when the probe tilt becomes greater. Recently, we found that the probe tilts were more than 10° at over half of the 87 seafloor heat flow measurement stations in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, where the probe tilts were recorded simultaneously. Thus, we obtained a quantitative relationship between probe tilt and the errors of thermal gradient and heat flow. Based on this relationship, we learned that the relative error, which is within 2%, can be neglected when the probe tilt is within 10 degrees. But at terrible operation conditions, especially the bad state of the sea, the tilt is perhaps up to 15~20 degrees, the relative error can be up to about 5%, and will increase nonlinearly and swiftly with probe tilt. We suggest that the inclinometer should be attached when we carry out seafloor heat flow measurements. Then, we should make tilt correction for the seafloor thermal gradient and heat flow if possible.

Cite this article

XU Ziying , YANG Xiaoqiu , SHI Xiaobin , ZENG Xin , ZHAO Junfeng , YU Chuanhai . Effects on the results of seafloor heat flow measurements by probe tilt[J]. Journal of Tropical Oceanography, 2016 , 35(4) : 95 -101 . DOI: 10.11978/2015117

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