The PI will make a series of heat flow measurements during a 30-day cruise in the sediments of the continental basement areas of the newly rifting Woodlark Basin to examine the evolution of extension from rift to conjugate margin stage. Thermal effects have not yet dissipated in this young margin. Heat flow values will provide constraints on temperature-dependent mechanical properties of the lithosphere during extension. Environmental and hydrothermal effects on the heat flow regime are considered to be small and swath bathymetry, sidescan imagery and gravity and magnetics data already exist.
