Estimating Curie depth and Heat Flow in the Circum-Arctic Region

We estimate the depth of the Curie isotherm and the associated heat flow for the Circum-Arctic Region using a Monte Carlo Markov Chain approach. In the first step, Curie depths are determined where heat flow measurements are available. For the depth estimates, different parameters and concepts are tested (e.g. pure conduction compared to half-space cooling) in order to assess the uncertainty underlying the depth estimates, but also of the observing point. Hereby, we rely on existing models of the Arctic lithosphere including ArcCRUST and LithoRef18. Half of the calculated Curie depth points show a low sensitivity to the choice of the parameters and models and hence can be regarded as stable, representing the thermal field of the lithosphere and not local effects. Hence, we can use these points as constraints for the second step, where we invert an aeromagnetic anomaly map for both the Curie depth and susceptibility for the Circum-Arctic Region. The new model shows that in areas where reliable constraints exist, the magnetic inversion is preferring to explain the magnetic anomalies with lateral susceptibility distribution, reflecting hereby the main geological features of the region.