Quantifying Heat Flow from a Restless Caldera: Shallow Measurement from a Vapor Dominated Area of the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field

Any attempt to characterize the vigor of magmatic activity and forecast future volcanism in Yellowstone caldera requires knowledge regarding the thermal state of its magmatic system, one of the largest and most focused heat sources on Earth. Current knowledge of heat transport between magma and the ground surface is limited. Advective heat transport from the caldera has been quantified by measuring chloride flux from the major rivers draining the caldera, based on the assumptions of the chloride inventory method (Fournier, JVGR1979). We have quantified the total (conductive, advective, and evaporative) heat flux from one of the most active thermal areas in Yellowstone caldera, the Obsidian Pool thermal area (OPTA) which includes 0.1 km2 of thermal ground within the Mud Volcano thermal area. The OPTA is characterized by vapor dominated conditions. Rising steam and other gases (mainly CO2) fill open fractures beneath a low-permeability cap consisting of clay minerals (Bargar and Muffler, 1982). Conduction-dominated heat transfer through the clay cap is associated with a high temperature gradient. We made at least 4 soil-temperature measurements at 0-1 m depth at 251 locations in the OPTA and measured soil thermal conductivity in the laboratory. Evaporative heat from several thermal pools was quantified based on pool temperatures and meteorological data. Our preliminary analysis indicates that surface heat loss from OPTA is dominantly conductive. Extrapolation of the OPTA results to approximately 35 km2 of vapor-dominated area in Yellowstone caldera and surroundings would yield a total heat flow that constitutes a major fraction of the total heat power from Yellowstone’s magmatic system.