Thermal structure of the Apennine-Thyrrenian basin system (Central Italy)

We present an up-to-date review of the existing terrestrial heat-flow data measured along the Apennine–Tyrrhenian basin system in central Italy and surrounding seas. The data collection included more than one thousand site-specif- ic heat-flow determinations obtained by means of the interval or the boot-strapping methods. The choice of method depended both on the lithostratigraphic complexity of the explored successions as well as the number of available temperature data. Furthermore, laboratory thermal conductivity measurements on more than two hundred core samples together with the application of correction procedures accounting for pressure and temperature effects al- lowed the calculation of reliable heat-flow values and their lateral and vertical variability. The observed site-specific heat-flow values were finally corrected for the Holocene paleoclimate changes (the last 12,000 years on a 1000-year time-step) and topographic effects. Although the thermally anomalous on-land sectors of Southern Tuscany and Northern Latium are characterized by a detectable hydrothermal circulation, the analysis and correction of the heat- flow data for advective heat transport phenomena, allowed to estimate the conductive component of the terrestrial heat-flow enabling the extrapolation at large depth of crustal temperature profiles. The results are discussed and interpreted in the framework of the actual tectonic models and the complex evolution of magmatism and volcanism along the Tyrrhenian margins of peninsular Italy from Miocene to the Present.