The relationship between seismic velocity and radioactive heat production in crustal rocks: An exponential law

In crystalline rocks seismic velocityV _p and densityp increase, whereas radioactive heat productionA decreases from acidic to basic compositions. From the velocity-density systematics for crustal rocks at different pressures an empiricalA(V _p) relationship has been derived for the range 5.0–8.0 km/sec which follows the exponential law:A(V _p )=a exp (-bV _p ), where the numerical factorsa andb depend onin situ pressure. A graph is given by means of which the heat production distributionA(z) can be obtained for any givenV _p (z) structure.Contribution No. 207, Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich.