Heat flow asymmetry on the mid-oceanic ridges of Northern and Southern Earth hemispheres

Abstract

A statistical analysis of heat flow (HF) distribution along nine geotravers crossing the midoceanic ridges in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans is carried out. A significant asymmetry in HF distribution is established – its mean values differ on opposite sides of the ridges axis. In the Earth southern hemisphere geotraverses, their western flank has a higher HF mean, and in the northern hemisphere geotraverses there is the eastern flank. Various tectonic factors that lead to such a distribution are taken into account, but the universal cause of this regularity is suggested to be the effect of the Coriolis force, which deflects the ascending magma flow in divergent zones, when the planet rotates, respectively, to the west – in the southern and to the east – in the northern hemispheres.